Artist Vladimir Kasatkin revealed the secrets of glassmaking

Vladimir Kasatkin is one of the most famous art glass artists in Russia. Now he is under 80, last year he celebrated his 50th anniversary in the profession, but the master continues to create new works. Gathered, tightened, his day is scheduled by the hour. Kasatkin not only creates sketches, but also works with craftsmen at a red-hot furnace, participates in the creation of the form (the basis of the work), polishes the work himself. The artist began in the 1960s, when art glass reached a fundamentally new level of expressiveness and stood on a par with “high art” – sculpture and painting – and even outstripped them. Now teaching a new generation. In a conversation with MK, Vladimir Ivanovich remembered the past and spoke about the problems of the present in the profession.

How did you become a glass artist? Why did you choose this profession?

— My father worked at a crystal factory. All my childhood I was spinning under his feet and as a boy I was somehow drawn into the profession. When I was at school, I attended the local technical school in Gus-Khrustalny, where I learned to be a grinder. I have the highest rank. Then he decided to enter the university as a glass artist. I tried at the Stroganov Institute in Moscow, it didn’t work out, then I went to the Stieglitz Academy – I entered and graduated. While I was studying in Leningrad, I went to various enterprises to comprehend the intricacies of glassmaking – to the Neman, to Dyadkovo. But he returned to Gus-Khrustalny. I didn’t want to run anywhere, I feel good here. When I came to work at the plant in Gus-Khrustalny after graduation, there was a huge enterprise here – a whole city of craftsmen. More than 6,000 people worked – an amazing team. It was the time of the joy of glassmaking creativity.

– After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the plant here, as in many other places in Russia, gradually withered, and then completely went bankrupt and closed for almost 10 years. While he wasn’t working, what did you do?

I didn’t notice, the time flew by so fast. Now, of course, things are different. Only a small workshop for 100 people works – one building among the ruins of its former splendor. But glassmaking holds on. I have a lot of work. Now we are making a crystal goblet for some sports conference in Belarus.

– Is there a change? Do you have many students?

“Now it’s not the same as before, when students regularly came to practice. But still there. And I admire how talented they are. Our cause is charged with magic, enchanted by which, then you will be betrayed forever. This is such an art that, like a virus, penetrates into the blood, and if you get infected, then you “get sick” all your life. Among the youth, I see a lot of “charged” eyes. But earlier, many craftsmen literally grew up in production, adopted knowledge and technology from their parents. So it was with me. My father was also a glassmaker. It’s the same on Murano – mastery is passed from parents to children, Italians generally have a strong nepotism. From a dozen children who absorb the profession from childhood, one great artist will grow up. If you’re lucky. And so we have such a family continuity, because there are fewer factories, fewer people work for them, and in general the time has changed. But still the change is growing.

– In the Crystal Museum there is your work “A Hymn to Glass” about 10 meters high. Is this your biggest work? How difficult is it to work in a large format?

– You know, it happens that it is more difficult to make a small glass. We created “Hymn to Glass” in collaboration with the great artist Vladimir Muratov, admiring and inspired by this material. It turned out kind of interesting. There, a metal frame is connected to a glass one and there are more than 350 individual details on it – flowers, birds, bells.

– From the very beginning, the sculpture stood in the altar of the temple, which in Soviet times was turned into a museum and now it remains so. Why there?

– They installed it there, but this place confuses me. They even recently sent me a letter to remove this work from the altar, and I signed it. I think it should be put somewhere else, but I don’t know where. The museum is a whole organism. So you can’t just move whatever you want. There is a large collection here, which is difficult to show, not all of them are on display. It’s a shame that the new director of the museum-reserve Ekaterina Pronicheva came here only once. She was not in Tsaritsyn, where there was a wonderful exhibition of our masters. It is clear that the case, the millennium of Suzdal is on the nose, but it’s still a pity. When people come to a museum or a factory, they leave spellbound. It is still possible to preserve the traditions that the Maltsovs laid down several centuries ago.

What technique is the most difficult?

– You can master any technique. There are complex and harmful – like galle (the technology of chemical treatment of laminated colored glass with a brush and acid, with a free stroke, like in watercolor, removing one layer of glass after another: such glass acquired a relief and became like ancient cameos. – MM.). But the main thing is that the artist brings his soul to any technology. I once worked in parallel with eight artists – in the same material and technique. We solved the same problem, but each in its own way: completely different works were obtained.

– Which of the last jobs is especially dear to you?

“Here is this goblet with a silver tint. Made using engraving with an oval face – a unique technology, he invented it. Now such rounded edges are made on glass using a device like a dental drill, and earlier only on a machine where heads were changed on the wheel. I continue to work on such a wheel. And the result is different from what is done with a modern brush-drill.

How many tools do you have in your arsenal?

– The whole plant is a workshop! And each master makes his own part of the product, which I came up with. Glass is a divine material. And we have a high Vladimir school – Yukin, Britov, Kokorin … Once we participated in an exhibition in Moscow together with painters, and the exhibitors put our works next to the paintings. When the artists came to the hall, they grabbed their heads and asked us to move their work to another room. Our glass blocked the painting!

— Do you blow and polish your works yourself?

– I don’t blow it, although I try. I grind myself. I participate in one way or another in the production process at all stages.

How long does a glass work of art last? On the one hand, it is a very fragile material, on the other hand, it is durable. But it happens that the glass becomes cloudy. Why?

– Glass is destroyed, darkens and becomes cloudy, if there was a marriage in production, something extra got into the material. And so it is eternal, albeit fragile. This is his magic.

What are the current problems in the industry? Previously, raw materials were brought from Ukraine, but now?

– As before – from Ukraine. Find some opportunities. In the area of ​​​​the village of Novoselovka, they are mined. Once they bought from the Germans, but that enterprise burned down. Now they turned to China, they also searched in Russia, nothing came of it. Sand – that is, quartz – is the basis of glassmaking, but there are a lot of impurities in ordinary sand. Need a clean one. There are difficulties with this. With a mixture (a special mixture from which glass is obtained. — MM.) problem – we don’t have it. It used to be, but the breeds ran out or remained of poor quality.

— Do you have occupational diseases?

— There is such a thing. I recently had surgery. Each age must undergo a medical examination – my term came up, and I went for a fluorography. The tumor was found and removed. In addition, they found something else, but this is age. After 70 years, there is no other way.

– Do they give you milk for harm?

– In Soviet times they gave. And now no.