Le Stanze del Vetro – Page 2 – Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Tapio Wirkkala at Venini

Edited by Marino Barovier and Carla Sonego

Skira Editore, Milan, 2021

A leading designer of Finnish glass, Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985) came to Murano in 1965 and was invited to collaborate with the Venini glassworks by its young director, the architect Ludovico de Santillana. Particularly interested in Venetian glass and its working techniques, which offered completely different expressive possibilities compared to Scandinavian crystal, Wirkkala enthusiastically threw himself into the Murano experi- ence, relying also on the great skill of the master glassmakers, with whom he established an extraordinary understanding.

The outcome of in-depth research based on partly unpublished mate- rial from the historical Venini Archive and from the artist’s own personal archive, this book illustrates the results of this collaboration through a sequence of about 200 models, accompanied by the relevant drawings. Several times in Murano between late 1965 and 1970 and again in the early 1980s, on one hand, Wirkkala gradually became familiar with the filigree technique and, on the other, after “discovering” colour, he often resorted to the incalmo technique for the creation of polychrome objects in trans- parent glass, which were to enjoy considerable commercial success.

Exhibition FontanaArte. House of Glass

Curated by Christian Larsen, FontanaArte. House of Glass addresses a subject of great interest in the glassmaking world in terms of both the vast array of themes and the calibre of the people involved in the history and production of the Milanese company. As a critical retrospective of the legendary FontanaArte glass furnishings, the exhibition will analyse the creative repertoire and production periods of its four great artistic direc- tors: Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, Max Ingrand and Gae Aulenti. From the foundation of FontanaArte by Ponti in 1932 until Aulenti’s departure in 1996, its catalogue charts a historical stylistic period in 20th-century design: from the rational logic of modernism to the playfulness of postmodernism. The company set the standards for Italian glass design thanks to the perfect continuity between classicism and contemporary technology, the ideal union of art and industry, the superlative quality of the materials and craftsmanship of industrial glass, and the elevation of the household object to the art of living. After going through individual “rooms” focusing on a specific study of each designer, the exhibition itinerary will culminate in a suite furnished in the Fontana-Arte style, thus evoking a period Milanese apartment. The exhibition installation will be designed by architect Massimiliano Locatelli.

International conference Tapio Wirkkala and Toni Zuccheri

The focus on designers and artists in the history of the Venini glassworks continues in 2022 with a fascinating, significant comparison of two highly individual personalities who collaborated with the Murano company during the 1960s. Proposed by the Glass Study Centre and conceived in correlation and concomitance with the double exhibition, the conference will explore in depth the work of Tapio Wirkkala and Toni Zuccheri, key figures who exercised a crucial influence on the Murano glassmaking world, as will be described by various experts. A leading exponent of the celebrated Finnish school, Wirkkala represented a qualitative breakthrough for Venini, especially as regards the incalmo technique, which he combined with mezza filigrana and murrine. Zuccheri, on the other hand, who inherited the passion and art of his father Luigi, an animal painter, experimented by immersing himself in the environment of the furnace. His initial animals, especially birds, were made of polychrome glass through the bold use of refined techniques. A Scandinavian minimalist, Wirkkala was a sculptor, industrial and graphic designer capable of mastering many materials on any scale, while Zuccheri used an imaginative, multifaceted language in a very different way, redolent of the vitality of nature, an inexhaustible source of inspiration, as for example in his elaborate concept of the Bestiary.
This is the starting point for the comparison between two styles, two ingenious spirits, each with their own cultural and technical background, capable of achieving very different kinds of eloquence with “glass matter” through their Murano experiments.

The Italian and foreign experts invited to the conference will examine the many aspects that characterise these two personalities, from their training to the versatility of their creative practice. They are an example of just how far the joint presence of diverse inventive talents on Murano contributed to providing a constant flow of lifeblood, innovating the art of glass, also in the broader context of the international art scene.

Double Exhibition. Tapio Wirkkala and Toni Zuccheri alla Venini

Tapio Wirkkala and Toni Zuccheri at Venini is the double autumn exhibition at Le Stanze del Vetro, curated by Marino Barovier and dedicated to the production of two artist-designers who were active at Venini from the 1960s onwards.
With strong personalities, each contributed to characterising the production of the glassworks, which, in those years of great transformation, was able not only to propose new models without renouncing the use of colour, but also to respond to the new needs of simplicity arising from the world of design.

The first aspect was developed in particular in the work of Toni Zuccheri. He produced an extraordinary series of birds and farmyard animals, as well as vases, with vivid colours and naturalistic lines inspired by the plant world. From 1966, the furnace could also count on the collaboration of the Finnish artist Tapio Wirkkala. Thanks to his experience in the world of Nordic glass at the Iittala factory, he brought a fresh approach to the lagoon as he combined his native culture with Murano workmanship, achieving significant results.

The Glass Ark. Animals in the Pierre Rosenberg Collection

The spring exhibition focuses on the extraordinary glass animal collection of Pierre Rosenberg, former Director/President of the Louvre in Paris

Due to the limited capacity of our exhibition space and in order to maintain social distancing, we suggest that you should book the day and time of your visit by sending an email to info@lestanzedelvetro.org or via Whatsapp +39 3516802697. Advance booking is required if you wish to visit the exhibition space during the weekend.

The exhibition “The Glass Ark. Animals in the Pierre Rosenberg Collection”, curated by Giordana Naccari and Cristina Beltrami, retraces – in an original and fascinating way – the history of 20th-century Murano glass from an unusual angle: the glass animal.

Upon the opening to the public of the exhibition it will also be possible to visit it online with the new 3D virtual tour and examine in detail, room after room, the extraordinary works on display thanks to the many insights, photographic and video contributions about the production of glass animals in Venice.

The over 750 works of art – representing, among others, elephants, hippos, cats, giraffes, bears, parrots, fish, turtles, foxes and tiny, lamp-worked life-sized insects – belong to the personal collection that Pierre Rosenberg, art historian and former Director/President of the Louvre in Paris, put together over thirty years.

Some of the most famous series will be on show, such as the pulegosi [bubble glass] pieces by Napoleone Martinuzzi, the birds by Tyra Lundgren and by Toni Zuccheri for the Venini glassworks. Alongside the Zebrati [zebra-striped] series by Barovier & Toso, the aquariums by Alfredo Barbini and the well-known examples by Seguso Vetri d’Arte, the exhibition will also feature a vast sample of animals made by lesser-known but equally interesting glassworks from the point of view of the technical and design experimentation of 20th-century Murano glass production. The exhibition will also showcase sculptures by living artists such as Cristiano Bianchin, Isabelle Poilprez, Maria Grazia Rosin and Giorgio Vigna that demonstrate the inexhaustible source of inspiration that the glass animal has to offer.

The exhibition set-up is curated by Denise Carnini and Francesca Pedrotti, two stage designers who engaged in setting up a glass zoo. The exhibition also includes an animated video by Giulia Savorani, visual artist and director who, starting from drawings on glass, has created a fairytale cartoon, based on an idea by Giordana Naccari for this occasion.

Le Stanze del Vetro. Venice and American Studio Glass

Open to the public from 6 September to 10 Jannuary 2021, the spring exhibition at Le Stanze del Vetro will be Venice and American Studio Glass, curated by Tina Oldknow and William Warmus, former curators of modern and contemporary glass at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. Showcasing the diversity of contemporary American art and design in glass, the exhibition features work that is beautiful and challenging, traditional and ground-breaking. Gathering together 155 outstanding glass vessels, sculptures and installations created by sixty American and Venetian artists, this exhibition will be the first to closely examine the influences of traditional Venetian glass-working techniques, as well as the Venetian aesthetic, on American Studio Glass made from the 1960s to the present.

Venice and American Studio Glass will demonstrate the powerful, enduring and versatile legacy of Venetian glassmaking in America by exploring the impact of Venice on contemporary American art in glass.

Thomas Stearns at Venini

The autumn exhibition at le stanze del vetro, curated by Marino Barovier, will focus on the American artist Thomas Stearns, who collaborated with the Venini glassworks in the early 1960s.
After an initial period during which Stearns familiarised himself with local techniques, he started to create works of an extremely original character and unusual for Murano. Various series of glass pieces came into being, designed as an artistic impression of a sculptural kind, characterised by asymmetric and organic shapes and unusual glass techniques, rooted in the material of glass itself and with singular colour schemes. For the 31st Venice Biennale in 1962, Venini chose to exhibit works by Tobia Scarpa and six pieces by the American artist, which
won great praise from the judging panel. His most celebrated pieces include Cappello del Doge (The Doge’s Hat), and Facciate di Venezia (Venice Façades). The gold medal was proposed for these works but in the event could only be awarded to an Italian artist. Stearns was also interested in cold finishing techniques and in the lighting sector, which he developed in both artistic and technical terms.

Maurice Marinot. Il vetro, 1911-1934

The exhibition Maurice Marinot. The Glass, 1911-1934 has been organised by LE STANZE DEL VETRO in collaboration with the Paris Musée des Arts Décoratifs (MAD). Curated by Jean-Luc Olivié and Cristina Beltrami, the exhibition will be the first international tribute to Maurice Marinot (1882-1960), a great glass artist and craftsman and a pioneer both in terms of technique and taste. An indefatigable experimenter, Marinot invented formulas for processing the material that were to be emulated for decades to come. Over 200 works, mainly from foreign museums, will be on show to illustrate the evolution and complexity of Marinot’s glass. They will be accompanied by 115 drawings, including sketches and designs for objects and exhibition installations from various museums, especially the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, and the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels.

The exhibition will highlight the incredible originality of this art glassmaker, from his early enamels to glass personally blown and modelled with extraordinary skill and inexhaustible inventiveness.

The M.V.M. Cappellin Glassworks and a Young Carlo Scarpa. 1925 -1931

A new publication in the series “Le Stanze del Vetro”, a project for the study and enhancement of Venetian glassmaking in the 20th century, from a collaboration between the Fondazione Cini and Pentagram Stiftung.

This volume accompanies the fall exhibition in Venice dedicated to the history of master glassmaker Muranesi Cappellin & C. (which Giacomo Cappellin founded after breaking with Paolo Venini and the V.S.M. Cappellin Venini & C.) to become one of the most important glass companies thanks also to its collaboration with a young architect, Carlo Scarpa. The vast production ranges from transparent glass to milky glass with gold, or glass paste and cased glass, or Phoenician decorations and figures, animals and plants; plus important lighting works.

The entire output of Cappellin is documented (open from 1925 to 1931), placing the spotlight above all on the contribution of the major architect and glass designer Carlo Scarpa, his work during the 1920s and his relations with the arts. The book also discusses the production and exhibitions of Cappellin in Paris and the United States, relations established with artists in Turin and its very unique glass productions. Edited by Marino Barovier, this volume includes the catalogue of the complete works by Carlo Scarpa for Cappellin and is an indispensible tool for collectors, scholars and art dealers.

The M.V.M. Cappellin Glassworks and the Young Carlo Scarpa 1925-1931

The autumn exhibition of LE STANZE DEL VETRO features M.V.M. Cappellin & C., the furnace founded by Giacomo Cappellin in 1925 and focuses in particular on the company’s production from the end of 1926 to early 1932, the year it went bankrupt. In the 1920s the furnace was described as being on par in terms of excellence with V.S.M. Venini & C., its rival in producing glass of exceptional quality, both as regards the vitreous textures and the design of the objects. The exhibition project aims to retrace the history of this glassworks for the first time, highlighting its importance on Murano in the 1920s and early 1930s. Driven by the passion of Giacomo Cappellin, from late 1926 the furnace also saw the involvement of the young architect Carlo Scarpa, who was to collaborate with the company until 1931. Scarpa was soon fairly independently designing models, which were notably distinguished by the use of geometric forms. In those years the M.V.M. designed new series of glass objects, the result of constant research into vitreous matter and into form,
often involving reviving ancient glass-working techniques, such as the filigree reticello and the Phoenician decoration. It then also succeeded in the challenge of opaque glass, obtaining textures with a powerful chromatic impact.
The history of the glassworks will be retold by reconstructing for the first time the entire production
catalogue thanks to the availability of various archives.