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 Historical Venetian glass by Venini on exhibit in California
At Museo Italo Americano in San FranciscoVeniceWord International Media Services is proud to be among the sponsors of an historical exhibit on the art of glass.
It is the story of one of the families who made it possible for the island of Murano, the birthplace of artistic glass, to become one of the capitals of design and taste. The Venini family is no longer involved in the company: our sponsorship aims to help a tradition and a success story being known also abroad.
Museo ItaloAmericano in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco and the Mingei International Museum in San Diego
presents its new exhibit VENINI: GLASS & DESIGN; Thursday, January 25 - Sunday, April 29, 2001. Museo hours: Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5:00 p.m.;
noon to 7:00 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month
Admission: $3 general admission; $2 senior citizens and full-time students; free for
children under 12 and for everybody on the first Wednesday of each
month. Free docent tours on Wednesdays, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Location: Museo ItaloAmericano, Marina District at
Fort Mason Center, Building C, San Francisco
The exhibit is curated by Anna Venini, daughter of the influential founder Paolo Venini, Venini: Glass & Design celebrates the historical importance of Venini glass, the innovation of the Venini family and their collaborations between the extraordinary artists who have launched art glass beyond traditional boundaries. The exhibition features about sixty pieces of glassware coming directly from several private Italian collections and the Venini Company in Italy as well as vintage photographs. The exhibition includes also some pieces by Dale Chihuly, Marvin Lipofsky, and Benjamin Moore from the artists' private collections. The exhibition will then continue its tour at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego.
On the opening reception evening, Anna Venini will present her new book, Venini. Catalogue Raisonné, 1921-1986 (available for sale at the Museo Gift Shop) with a brief lecture.
In addition to Venini: Glass & Design, the Museo is also proud to present DIAZ DE SANTILLANA: THE FAMILY TRADITION CONTINUES, which features the most recent works by Laura and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana, talented daughter and son of Ludovico Diaz de Santillana and Anna Venini. |
Venini: Glass & Design has been made possible thanks to the generous contributions by Angelo and Yvonne Sangiacomo, Mr. Bernard Osher, Colli Umbri, Nova Venezia International, Policelli Italian Lighting and Design, Ryan Creative Printing & Packaging Inc., VeniceDream srl, Veniceword International, and Venini.
The most important single fact about Paolo Venini is that he was not a Venetian, yet still managed as a "foreigner" to work in Venice and command respect there. It was a mark of his acceptance by other Venetian glassmakers that they copied him to the extent they did. Coming from Milan, Venini automatically had a broader general approach than most Venetians. As islanders, the Venetians suffer from insularity. Paolo Venini and his wife Ginette Ginous came from a background which combined law and art. Paolo, who had been a lawyer in Milan, was essentially the businessman, and his wife the artist. But Venini combined his business acumen with a passion for glass. When he first came to Murano in 1921, Venini entered into partnership with a Venetian, Giacomo Cappellin, and they had as their artistic director the painter Vittorio Zecchin. What this team brought to the Venetian glass scene was a degree of culture that had been missing for a very long time. They had the ability to separate the good from the bad, and above all to eliminate the mediocre. The team's effort was almost immediately recognized at international exhibitions and in 1923 led a critic to comment 'Beyond doubt the art of glass has been resurrected in our country." In the case of "Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Cappellin-Venini e C.", the personalities were too strong for the partnership to last, and in 1925, Paolo Venini set up on his own, having gained the necessary confidence to do so./font> |
The freedom with which the contemporary glass artist handles his material would have been unthinkable even fifty years ago, and the pioneering spirit of Paolo Venini was an important factor in the liberation process. Whilst denying the Venetian glass workers none of their skill, he introduced them to a modern language in which to express themselves.
Paolo Venini ran his glassworks for thirty-four years, from 1925 until his death in 1959. The direction of the company remained in the hands of the family until 1986. During the time of his involvement with Venini, Paolo Venini attracted a variety of talented designers to come and work for him. His own particular talent was to generate enthusiasm, and this he combined with an ability to choose the right people to surround him. Because of the enormous success of the 1950s Venini design, the production from that period has tended to eclipse the earlier period stretching from 1925s to the outbreak of the Second World War. The years with Cappellin were for Paolo Venini an initiation process, a period of sorting out and of analyzing the industry in order to find a new direction. The most famous vase from this period was the "vaso Veronese", a simple
traditional shape in smoked glass literally "borrowed" from Paolo Veronese's painting of the "Annunciation" which hangs in the Accademia in Venice. The return to simple elegance was also innovative in that it at last put a stop to the uncontrollable desire for over decoration which had weighed down Venetian glass for nearly two centuries. During this period, Napoleone Martinuzzi collaborated with Venini to produce vessels that were typically Venetian and yet quite modern in feeling, thin blown shapes sparingly
decorated. Martinuzzi also developed his "vetro pulegoso" series, in which the thin glass vessels had a crusty surface. During the 1930s, there was much more of a tendency to experiment with the material itself. Carlo Scarpa began his association with Venini in 1932, and it was largely under his influence that a new "syntax" of glass, based on traditional techniques like "lattimo", was constructed. Italian glass of the 1920s and 1930s accommodated current tastes rather than creating anything that was really new. But this itself was an innovation. During the period between the First and Second World Wars, however, the Venetian glass industry was in a more receptive state, and Paolo Venini was one of those responsible for this new artistic approach. . With considerable headway on practices current at the time, Venini created the first designer trademark in which it was unimportant who the creator or designer was, because the article thus created was irrefutably and immediately identifiable as a product from the Venini glassworks.
When activities resumed after World War II, the Venetian glass industry was poised to enter one of the most original phases in its entire history. This new enthusiasm was encouraged at the Venice Biennial and Milan Triennial exhibitions, which had become an important showcase for Italian design, and the modern Italian Renaissance was intelligently recorded in the pages of Domus, under the editorship of Gio Ponti. He was also a close friend of Paolo Venini, taking a great personal interest in his work in the glass industry, and himself contributing a number of designs to Venini. Paolo Venini and other Venetian glass manufactures became a part of the Italian design revival, and their work received international acclaim at the various different shows, particularly the three Milan Triennial shows in 1951, 1954, and 1957. |
 There were also a number of important touring exhibitions of Italian glass, one of the most important travelling in 1957-58 through Germany and Austria. The techniques remained essentially Venetian, derived from an already rich tradition, but one which was already thoroughly investigated and plundered for ideas that had long been neglected. This translation of old ideas into a new idiom was in fact a feature of Venini glass and is found again and again in the 1950s. A good example of this is the series of "Commedia dell'Arte" figures, designed by Fulvio Bianconi, which took on an almost surreal quality.
On a purely technical level, the mosaic patterns in Carlo Scarpa's "murrine" pieces were in one sense reminiscent of Roman cast mosaic bowls from the second century B.C., whilst also being closely related to modern abstract art. Stripes both horizontal and vertical, were another feature of Venini glass from the '40s and 50s, sometimes broad and
sometimes narrow; the fascination with stripes continued for nearly twenty years, with the "pennellate" series, the tartan series, and so many variations that it would now be difficult to invent a new stripe pattern not already hinted at by Venini.
From stripes it was a natural progression to the various patchwork techniques
"pezzato" and "occhi", both of which must be considered among the most innovative visual effect in twentieth-century glass. The "pezzato" pieces in particular, with their asymmetric pattern of patchwork in loud colors, suited the mood of the 1950s particularly well, and have come to be considered among the design classic for those years
With the death of Paolo Venini in 1959, much of the vitality at Venini was lost. It is always a problem to replace a source of such original creativity. But the reputation established by him carried on, and many famous designers came to work at Venini." /font> |
At the beginning, working at Venini was difficult for Ludovico de Santillana, Paolo Venini's son-in law, who was only 28 years old. Ludovico was an architect, but his main passion was teaching. When Ludovico arrived at Venini, Tobia Scarpa, the son of Carlo, was there. He and Ludovico became friends, and Tobia helped Ludovico with getting started at Venini. Together, they created a series of "battuti." Not long afterwards, however, Tobia left and Ludovico began to rely quite a bit on the masters, in particular, Checco Ongaro, the head master.
The seventies were difficult and there was not much work. In addition, in 1972, a big fire destroyed most of Venini -- the museum, offices, factory, and Paolo Venini's book collection. Ludovico spent some time on architectural jobs during this period, concentrating mostly on new ideas for lighting. He made many trips to Saudi Arabia, working on lighting commissions for public buildings as well as lighting and objects for the private apartments of the royalty, including the King of Morocco. With the help of Sergio Andreotta, a clever and mechanically gifted assistant, Ludovico spent hours developing ideas for lamps and trying out new forms and shapes. Most of these were presented at Euroluce, the trade fair in Milan. There was a much more international flavor to the designs of the 60s and 70s, as seen in the work of Tapio Wirkkala, Ove and Brigitta Karlson, Thomas Stearns, Dale Chihuli, Richard Marquis, James Carpenter, Michael Nourot and John Milner, Marvin Lipofski, Dan Daley, William Pringle, Benjamin Moore and more recently Toots Zynsky and Tina Aufiero, all of whom have been working for the company.
Laura de Santillana, Ludovico's daughter, came to work at Venini after a period at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Together, Ludovico and Laura developed a set of glass windows with new designs that could be used like screens. Alessandro de Santillana, Laura's brother, also joined the firm during these years. He was studying materials, researching techniques, trying to find his own, unique method of expression with glass.
Until 1986, the firm was headed by Ludovico de Santillana, who continued the tradition of being a director closely involved with design.
In 1986 the Venini family sold the company to the Gardini and Ferruzzi families.
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