Political cartoon from the May 3, 1888 “Weekly Freeman” showing the plight of Irish tenants evicted from their homes.

NEW YORK CITY – The Corning Gallery, located in the Steuben flagship store, 667 Madison Avenue at 61st Street, and the Corning Museum of Glass are presenting “: Czech Design, 1948-1978.” This exhibition, which celebrates art’s role in a cry for freedom, is drawn from the permanent collection at the Corning Museum of Glass.

The exhibit explores glass design in Czechoslovakia during a time marked by limited artistic freedom. After the Soviet takeover in 1948, when painters, sculptors and graphic artists ran the risk of persecution for creating nonapproved abstract art, glass was overlooked as a nonpolitical medium. Glass designs of this era are innovative and document an important “underground” period in Czech art that would otherwise be unknown.

Accompanying the exhibition are drawings of the period, recently acquired by the Rakow Research Library of the Corning Museum of Glass, some of which served as the original sketches for the glass in the exhibition. Featured artists include Stanislav Libenský, Jaroslava Brychtová, Jirí Harcuba, Vladimír Kopecký, René Roubícek and Frantisek Vizner, as well as Bohumil Eliás, Pavel Hlava, Vladamír Jelinek, Vera Lisková, Adolf Matura, Ladisvla Oliva, Václav Plátek, Miluse Roubícková, and Ludvika Smrcková.

The gallery is free and open to the public Monday through Friday, 10 am to 7 pm, Saturdays, 10 am to 6 pm, and Sundays, noon to 5 pm. For more information, call 646-497-3744.