Gasnews Winter 2018final

GASnews

WINTER 2018 VOLUME 28 ISSUE 4

INSIDE

3 Letter from the President 3 Letter from the Editor 4 In Memory of Maestro Pino Signoretto,

Legendary Glass Artist (1944-2017)

5 Murano's Rich Past 8 Toffolo and Zecchin: Historical Flameworking 10 2018 Conference Spotlight: Pre-Thinking

The Glass Path with Master Simone Cenedese

12 A Snaphot of the Early History of Venini Factory 14 GAS Resource Links Cover: xxx... need caption

GAS news

GASnews is published four times per year as a benefit to members.

Glass Art Society Board of Directors 2016-2017

Contributing Writers: Regan Brumagen, Max Grossman, Emily Kuchenbecker, David Schnuckel Editor: Michael Hernandez Graphic Design: Ted Cotrotsos*

President: Natali Rodrigues Vice President: Stephen Powell Vice President: Tracy Kirchmann Treasurer: John Kiley Secretary: Jessica Julius

Staff Pamela Figenshow Koss, Executive Director Kristen W. Ferguson, Operations & Program Manager Jalair Box, Development & Membership Specialist Tess McShane, Communications & Social Media Specialist Helen Cowart, Administrative Assistant

Alex Bernstein Kelly Conway Matt Durran Michael Hernandez Ed Kirshner Jeff Lindsay Heather McElwee

Lynn Read Masahiro Nick Sasaki Jan Smith Cassandra Straubing Cesare Toffolo David Willis

Student Rep: Caitlin Vitalo

*part time/contract

6512 23rd Avenue NW, Suite 329, Seattle, WA 98117 USA Phone: 206.382.1305 Fax: 206.382.2630 E-mail: info@glassart.org

Web: www.glassart.org

Š2017 The Glass Art Society, a non-profit organization. All rights reserved. Publication of articles in this newsletter prohibited without permission from the Glass Art Society Inc. The Glass Art Society reserves the right to deny applications for Tech Display, advertising participation, GAS membership or conference participation to anyone for any reason.

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PRESIDENT’S LETTER

EDITOR’S LETTER

My Dear Fellow Members, It seems that every day there is something new to look forward to with the upcoming GAS Conference in Murano. Il Percorso di Vetro, The Glass Path is a fitting name for this conference as we begin to plan the journey to Murano. It will be a path of discovery, sharing, and ultimately, what we leave behind and what we bring home.

I would love to tally all of the things that I’m excited about, but that is impossible, Venice and Murano provide a limitless list of wonder, excitement, and intrigue. Each time period, advance, feat of skill, technical leap…these are all incalculable in the city and island’s history. Every moment in that long timeline offers a point of beginning, and movement outward.

The city’s history is wrapped up in not only my family history, but possibly all of ours. You can see that evidence in the early European settlement of North America, how skill spread from Venice across Europe, and in the history of the world through its port and ensuing trade. Perhaps it is most visible in the decolourized glass, cristallo, that we all use. It is a paean to the very place we are set to meet. It is not simply history that pulls me there, it is also the future. This conference marks a period in time unlike any other, and heralds an inevitable change for glass around the world.

I would like to thank the site committee for all of their hard work and planning for this conference, as well as the people of Murano in their willingness to participate. Their welcoming cooperation with GAS is a gift and is not lost on any of us. It is my hope that we can share in an equal way with our colleagues from the island, that through this conference we will build new possibilities there, as well as at home.

I know that this new glass path will lead us to a new horizon.

Much of the culture, the craft, and the passion of glassmaking are owed to Murano. It is home to a great number of innovations and amazing feats of creative expression. While Murano once guarded these techniques and developments, it is the shared knowledge and experiences that have given such great potency to its legacy. We remember Maestro Pino Signoretto as one of our greatest mentors, whose name alone represents a pinnacle of glass sculpting. His generosity and love for the medium defines, for many, the spirit of Murano that has spread around the world. It is in his wake that we set the stage for a conference that will honor this spirit of community and our shared love of glass.

With so many exciting and unique demos, lectures, and experiences planned, it’s difficult to focus in on any one aspect of this year’s conference.

In this issue, our writers have highlighted some of the conference presenters, venues, and local histories to give readers a taste of the event programming and build on what is, for many of us, steeped in excitement. Emily Kuchenbecker sets the stage for Cesare Toffolo and Sandro Zecchin’s lecture on historical flame working. David Schnuckel discusses the relevance of this conference with Simone Cenedese, as they emphasize a broadening of understandings that will come with both historical and cultural exchange. Lastly, Max Grossman provides an intimate look into the Venini company and its rich history in the development of glassmaking.

Cin cin!

Michael Hernandez

Natali Rodrigues President, Board of Directors Glass Art Society

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IN MEMORY OF MAESTRO PINO SIGNORETTO LEGENDARY GLASS ARTIST 1944-2017 In reality everything has an end, either because it ends up existing, sometimes because it just fails! One thing is certain, art, my art will never fail…even if the fire of my burning furnaces should cool down.

– Pino Signoretto Pino Signoretto was more than a master of glass, glass was a part of his soul. Anyone who saw him at work was astounded by what he could do, he made sculpting glass look effortless.

“I describe myself a visionary,” said Signoretto. “I love drawing and creating images and sculptures with glass.”

Born in 1944 in a small town near Venice, Signoretto started working with glass as a child, perhaps this is why he knew it so well – he and glass were old friends – he called it “the unrivaled master of my life.”

Pavone (Peacock), Pino Signoretto

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Pino Signoretto

At the age of 14, he began working with some of the great masters including Alfredo Barbini, Livio Seguso, Ermanno Nason and Angelo Seguso. In 1960, at the age of 16, he had already acquired the skills necessary and became a master glassmaker.

In 1978, at the age of 34, Signoretto opened his own studio in Murano.

In 1985, Signoretto traveled to Aumori, Japan thus beginning a long series of trips there, including a special demonstration in the presence of the imperial family.

Throughout the years, he collaborated with artists and architects around the world including: Dali, Vedova, Licata, Kruft, Dal Pezzo, Vitali, Pomodoro, Willson, Koons, Kummer, Vercrysse, Quinn, Chihuly and more. Pino also shared his knowledge and skills through teaching and was a beloved mentor to countless glass artists, young and old. He was known for experimenting and encouraging students to push past boundaries.

“Whenever I tried to get beyond a certain point, there was always a wall created by those before me. They would

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say, ‘You can’t do this, you’re not supposed to try that,’” said Signoretto. “I want to take away that barrier between teacher and student.”

Over the years he received the following: two Gold Medals at the Foyer des Artistes, in France; the Venice Biennale Trophy; the Award Scultura Vetro Murano; Honorary Award of European Economic Community; and the Mam-Maestro d’Arte e Mestiere, which is given to the seventy-five best Italian artisans. Pino had been scheduled to participate in this year's conference and was notified that he had been awarded the distinguished Lifetime Technical Achieve-ment Award for Exceptional Contributions to the Studio Glass Field in May of 2018 at the 47th Annual Glass Art Society Conference in Murano.

Maestro Pino Signoretto died suddenly in Murano, Italy on December 30, 2017 at the age of 73. The Glass Art Society and the glass community around the world grieves his loss. We are forever grateful for the art and legacy he leaves behind.

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MURANO’S RICH PAST

by Regan Brumagen

Le doge de Venise visitant les verreries de Murano, Désiré Dumont, 1870-1890, CMGL 92232.

Courtesy of the Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York.

The glassblowers of Murano have long been admired for their skill, artistry, and traditions. The history of glassmaking on Murano extends back centuries and as members flock to the island in May to convene the annual gathering of the Glass Art Society, consider that it is the artists working with glass who have always fascinated the public as much or more than the famous Venetian glass itself.

The name Barovier may be the most storied in Venetian glassmaking, tracing its glassmaking genealogy to the 14th century.

References to Angelo Barovier, the famed inventor of cristallo, are numerous, but you will also find Giuseppe and Benvenuto Barovier in the 1891 London Daily Telegraph displaying their glassblowing prowess at an exhibition entitled “Venice in London.” “As it is,” the Telegraph’s reporter gushes enthusiastically, “the artists – for artists they are, as much as any who ever GASN N EE W WSS

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wielded brush, pencil, or chisel – begin from an early age, and have their eyes burnt out before they are fifty.”

The Barovier brothers were in London on the wave that began with Antonio Salviati’s efforts to revive world-wide interest in Murano glass earlier in the 19th century.

By 1889, Dr. Giulio Salviati, Antonio’s son, could be found addressing The Society of Arts on Regent Street in London, comparing Murano’s glassblowers to sculptors and painters drawing a model, but noting, “how much more difficult… must it be for an artist to have to mould his subjects from the pliant and semi-liquid glass, and to be obliged to work at such a speed as to prevent the glass from cooling too much for manipulation.”

Murano’s glass was being sold in showrooms in major cities such as London and New York and exhibited in international exhibitions like that of the

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CMGL 52569. Courtesy of the Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York.

1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.

Murano’s glass and glassblowers were traveling the world, but the world was also traveling to Murano. In fact, visiting Venice and its myriad glass showrooms has been a traveler’s pastime that has thrived for centuries. The fascination with glass was well-established enough that several Venetian glass company trade catalogs from the early 20th century include a handy map of Venice pointing out its company showrooms around the city and the location of its factory across the water in Murano.

Regan Brumagen is Associate Librarian, Public Services at the Rakow Research Library.

Suggestions for Websites of Special Interest: To explore more about the rich history of Murano glassmaking, visit the Rakow Library website: https://www.cmog.org/library William Gudenrath’s recent publication, The Techniques of Renaissance Glassmaking in Venice: https://renvenetian.cmog.org/home A map of Murano noting a few well-known glassmaking sites: https://goo.gl/36UHNT Google Books for Marietta: Maid of Venice

by Francis Crawford (1901), a fictionalized account of Angelo’s daughter, herself a glassmaker, available full-text online https://goo.gl/wgxAbm Have a question? Ask a librarian: https://libanswers.cmog.org

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Salviati & C. Lithograph pages from a trade catalog of chandeliers. About 1890.

Pauly & Cie, manufacture de verres soufflés artistiques, Pauly & Cie, 1920-1925, CMGL 165092.

Courtesy of the Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York.

Services de table, Salviati & C., 1890-1913, CMGL 55419. Courtesy of the Rakow Research Library, The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, New York.

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TOFFOLO AND ZECCHIN: HISTORICAL FLAMEWORKING

by Emily Kuchenbecker

Cesare Toffolo at work

Opera, Cesare Toffolo

The upcoming Glass Art Society Conference in Murano, Italy will host many incredible lectures, demonstrators and panelists.

Highly recommended are two lectures, one by Cesare Toffolo and another by Sandro Zecchin that will include information about the history of lampworking from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Zecchin and Toffolo have also been collaborating on a book entitled Il Vetro a Lume (Lampworking), which will be published in the Spring of 2018.

Cesare Toffolo was born in 1961 in Venice to a family of glassmakers. With a family history of lampworking, Cesare was introduced to the process at the young age of fourteen in his father's studio.

Cesare’s unique and beautiful work is exhibited internationally and he teaches workshops in lampworking all over the world. He continues his familial tradition of glassmaking by sharing his current studio with his sons Emanuel and Elia Toffolo.

Sandro Zecchin was born in 1949 in Murano and received his degree in

chemistry – a field which he worked in for nearly 40 years. Zecchin has a keen interest in the production of Venetian Glass and has studied the topics for over 20 years. His more recent research has focused on the history of lampworked items in Italy.

Some of the first discoveries of lampworked objects, found in Egypt, date to almost 5,000 years ago. Records of using a small flame to manipulate glass were also found in ancient Rome, but there was little documentation of this until the 16th century. In Venice, lampworking – or working alla lume, was utilized to produce specifically small glass objects. Many lampworkers created small animals, small figures, and paternostri (small beads created for rosaries). Up until the mid-800s lampworking torches functioned from the fuel of animal fat (or vegetable oil), with the introduction of air from the maker’s breath, or a foot pedal system, where air would enter the torch through small bellows.

As glass making equipment progressed,

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flame, coal and gas (such as methane and propane) were used to fuel torches. Today, as many of you know, torches are run by oxygen and propane through pressurized tanks and valves.

The lecture at the conference will take us through a chronological recording of the history of lampworking. In Venice, the making of glass pearls (suppialume) is found recorded in 1574 according to Archivio di Stat although the term suppialume didn’t begin to appear in Italian texts until 1629. Glass beads and small replicas of pearls were a common craft of lampworkers of this era.

Lampworking later spread to France to studios based in Nevers, Parigi, Angers, Saumur, and Orleans. These studios produced high quality figurines of saints, birds, flowers, and insects. In the 18th century, the production of Christmas ornaments, pearls, and scientific glass was prominent in Germany. The wellknown Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolf produced highly accurate realistic depictions of botanicals, and small invertebrates beginning in the19th century.

Their refined skill and exacting replication of natural form and texture is still revered today in artistic and scientific communities and held in some of the most prestigious museums in America. Zecchin and Toffolo will speak in depth to the history of lampworking studios, techniques, and objects in the upcoming release of their book.

Over the course of four years, these authors have traveled and met with makers as a form of gathering research for the content of this book. With content gathered through research and the author's personal experiences of over 40 years on the torch, this publication aims to cover a broader spectrum of lampworking beyond the specifics of a single technical approach.

The book follows a chronological unfolding of history, including personal stories of artists expressing their connections to the process of glass lampworking. Following specific

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Musée De Manoir De Saussey

stories of artist’s lives, the text unveils the geographical differences in approach and confronts the secrecy of technique, giving new insight to the development of lampworking throughout the world.

The book is written in two volumes and speaks of the development of lampworking in seven different countries. Through the text, the reader will gain a sense of how these countries influenced each other’s practices, thus spreading the knowledge of the lampworking discipline. The first volume, written by Sandro Zecchin, is on the historical context of lampworking form the 18th-19th centuries. Zecchin writes about the history of glass objects that were produced on a torch, how techniques were developed, as well as leaders in the lampworking movement.

The second volume, written by Cesare Toffolo, will cover lampworking from the 19th century to contemporary times and focuses on the progression of objects, makers, and techniques. The evolution of equipment will also be included in this section dedicating information to how things have advanced over time to the common lampworking studio set ups we see today. The exchange of information and techniques, once kept a secret by maestros of lampworking, is now readily shared and available to aspiring artists throughout

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GLASHAUS The International Magazine of Studio Glass

the glass community via demonstrations, YouTube streaming, and webinars.

Both Toffolo and Zecchin are maestros to the material and will enlighten any reader or listener to information that can only be gathered from their unique experiences. I cannot recommend this lecture highly enough and assure that this is one you will not want to miss at the 2018 Murano conference.

Emily Kuchenbecker is a former GAS Student Representative currently pursuing a Masters degree at Virginia Commonwealth University.

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German/ English, 4 issues p.a. 49 Euros Dr. Wolfgang Schmölders Glashaus-Verlag, Stadtgarten 4 D-47798 Krefeld (Germany) Email: glashaus-verlag @ t-online.de Web: http://studioglas.jimdo.com

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2018 CONFERENCE SPOTLIGHT: PRE-THINKING THE GLASS PATH WITH MASTER SIMONE CENEDESE

by David Schnuckel Having the 2018 GAS Conference hosted on the island of Murano is an exquisite representation of the international scope of the GAS mission. A venue like Murano certainly reflects GAS’s efforts to sustain and advocate a global representation of our glass working community. It also suggests an interesting opportunity to consider the contemporary context of glass and its future trajectory in a place that is so steeped in significant chapters of glass history and glass working tradition.

Year after year, I love dwelling on the relationship between a GAS Conference hosting site and what associations it carries with the field physically, literally, historically, and figuratively. I equally love comparing those observations to the Conferences just before: to see what they share, how they differ, and what those things might suggest about where we’re at, where we’ve come from, and where we might be going.

The Glass Path comes at a fascinating point in time. A time where contemporary glass practice seeks opportunity to merge with disciplines and thinking that relate to ideas of history, convention, commodity, and skill in highly ambiguous ways; through work that resides in the experimental, multi-media, material engineering, performance, and the digital.

It’s exciting to think about what defines the NOW within the contemporary glass in

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Simone Cenedese

Simone Cenedese

relation to the ancient canons from which we pull from, emulate, abstract, challenge, and reinterpret. The conference hosted in Murano this May acts almost like a homecoming in this way.

In fact, Master Simone Vendees (artist, factory owner of Simone Cenedese, and 2018 GAS Conference demonstrator) elaborates on the importance of the 2018 GAS Conference being on Murano by saying, “I feel [it] is very important for all [GAS] Members [to experience glass on Murano] because I think Murano is for glass makers what Rome is for architects!”

The theme of the 2018 Conference, The Glass Path, also suggests interesting metaphors related to the course with which things are moving along, both literally and figuratively. Not only does it provide each member an opportunity to navigate around the glass culture of the island, but to intellectually consider the notion of how the contemporary field may be treading into the future in relation to its past.

Master Simone Cenedese speculates on a broader, historically-based

interpretation of the Conference theme by saying, “I feel Murano will be a little like Venice was in the ‘Silk Route’…a crossroads of exchange, experience, [and the] meetings of different thoughts and cultures.” In this sense, The Glass Path represents itself as a venue for trade and opportunity in a highly unique manner; offering all GAS Conference participants access to highly valuable currencies of community and camaraderie. “I think progress is always a way to grow, to broaden our own horizons,” he states.

“The world is even more closer.”

“The glass factory I started [in] was the family one,” according to Simone Cenedese. “My grandfather began [it] in the 40’s blowing glass parts [for] light bulbs. [The] glass factory was then handled by my father with a more artistic approach [afterwards].”

The glass factory has since become a venue for Master Simone Cenedese to design, prototype, and execute a wide variety of contemporary projects; glass production that has culminated in the

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form of objects, assemblages, suspended installations, lighting, and site specificity.

Aside from providing demonstration during The Glass Path, Master Simone Cenedese is also providing his studio as a 2018 GAS Conference demonstration site for other program participants to share their expertise with the GAS public.

In thinking about his own demonstration during the Conference, Master Simone Cenedese says “I will let myself be inspired by the atmosphere which surrounds me, [what it will] suggest, and [let it] guide my hands [in] the final glass work.”

Yet, it’s not just glass that will be at the forefront of the conference experience, but a highly unique glimpse at the Muranese livelihood that has informed and influenced its glass heritage for centuries. “Glass marks the hours every day here; [GAS] members coming here will breathe Murano 360 degrees. They will live everyday Murano life.” The food, the language, the weather, the people, and countless other aspects of this highly unique Conference venue will certainly contribute to a new perspective on how a sense of place significantly informs one’s method of practice within it.

Murano is an island that has a historical footnote of secrecy and exclusion when it comes to matters of their signature techniques and material comprehension – of holding the intricacies of their invention close at hand for competitive purposes.

Sommerso Calcedonio, Simone Cenedese

Yet the 2018 GAS conference being hosted in the very same place represents a new era of openness, sharing, and accommodation both culturally and artistically, one that will further expand the Glass Art Society’s dialogue of moving forward by way of marinating in the rich contributions of its past and present.

To learn more about Simone Cenedese, visit https://www.simonecenedese.it David Schnuckel is an artist and educator, currently serving as Lecturer within the Glass Program of the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

Ciottolo, Simone Cenedese

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A SNAPSHOT OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF VENINI FACTORY

by Max Grossman The Murano GAS Conference will provide a unique look at the historic venues that make the island known worldwide. I think it's important to direct our attention to places that are opening our doors to attendees, and what better place to start than the famous Venini factory!

Entering the glass world nearly a hundred years ago, Venini broke with tradition to collaborate with a diverse group of world renowned industrial designers, artists, architects and craftspeople.

Arguably one of the most important of the factories that survive to this day, Venini has always been a pioneer in craft, design, technique, and the exchange of ideas.

At the end of the 19th century, Italian glass had hit a slump. Confined to the island of Murano since 1291 due to the risk of fire from the furnaces, glassmakers were forbidden to leave for fear of sharing trade secrets. But by the late 1800s, not

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Venini Fondamenta Vetrai 50, Est. 1921. Photo: Ivano Mercanzin

only had Europe learned the secrets of glassmaking, they had popularized a new form, cut crystal, which relied not on the skill of forming the glass hot but a new technique of carving it cold. Venetian glass was at the time defined by a revival of traditional Roman styles and forms, and this fad of reproducing the old highly decorative techniques didn't go over as well as the modern cut crystal. At the same time, Americans who lacked access to the old methods and traditional skills were developing machinery to mass produce glass at speeds never seen before, using methods like pressing to produce imitations of the same European designs in an industrial setting.

Enter Paolo Venini in 1921. A lawyer from Milan with a passion for glass, he partnered with Giacomo Capellin, an antique dealer from Venice to form Cappellin Venini and C. Their artistic director was Vittorio Zecchin, a Venetian painter and son of a glass maker who’s painted work draws comparisons to Gustav Klimt. During these early years Zecchin designed clean simple forms that were modeled after

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the old Roman glass, and laid the basis for what the company is still known for – reinterpretation of traditional schemes, openness towards new artistic trends, and high manufacturing skill.

In 1925 Cappellin and Venini dissolved their partnership, each going separate ways – Capelin took Zecchin and founded Cappellin and C, and Venini hired Napoleone Martinuzzi as his artistic director, founding his new company, Venini and C. Martinuzzi was extremely influential, helping to develop some of the more distinctive decorative elements Venini would become known for, like the “pulegoso” glass which contained thousands of tiny air bubbles, giving a visual weight and opacity to a glass once known for its thin and delicate qualities.

Using these new techniques and brilliant color formulas developed in-house by Venini's brother Franco, and designs from Martinuzzi, the company became known for contemporary forms and lighting designs that were exciting and modern, but was still referenced for the years of craft heritage it had developed.

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Venini furnace, photo: Orsenigo-Chemollo

Martinuzzi left Venini in 1932 to form his own company, and Venini hired two architects as art directors, Tomaso Buzzi and Carlo Scarpa. Buzzi only worked for Venini for a year, but Scarpa stayed on for ten years producing some of most famous and iconic designs Venini is still known for.

Scarpa was an innovator in both technique and form, reviving thousand-year-old techniques or creating new ones (like murrine – fused tiles, battuto – carved, textured surface, tessuti – ribbons, granulari-raised dots, and pennelate – brushstrokes) to make elegant forms decorated with unique fused patterning.

In 1938 Venini invited female designer Tyra Lundgren to work with the factory, the first time they had worked with a freelance artist. This marks a significant moment in the modern age of industrial glass because previously, the role of craftspeople, designers, and business owners were kept separate. In addition, it was rare to have an outsider in a Venetian factory. Venini himself had been learning about glass, and began to create his own designs and techniques, which continued into the 1950s. The breaking down of these institutional walls was significant – for ages the roles each person in a factory were separate and defined. Venini's rejection of these traditional roles not only shed a fresh GASNEWS

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light on the industry, but the idea of inviting artists from other mediums to exchange ideas with glassmakers is a trend that continues to evolve today in the modern studio glass movement.

During the 1940s, as the war escalated, the company managed to stay afloat by diversifying its production, even presenting an innovative show at the 1942 Biennale.

After a slow post war recovery, Venini was electrified with a bolt of new creative energy from young designer Fulvio Bianconi who made whimsical, colorful creations using new techniques piazzo, a colorful quilted patchwork; fasce, banded pieces; and inclusion, embedded details. Venini's own work along with Scarpaʼs and the pieces Bianconi made up till Paolo Venini's death in 1959 are regarded are some of the most popular pieces the company ever produced.

When Venini died in 1959, his son-inlaw Ludovico Diaz de Santillana took over the company. Working on designs himself, and inviting others to collaborate with the company – like Tobia Scarpa, the son of Carlo, architect Toni Zuccheri, designer Gio Ponti, and artists Mimmo Rotella and Tapio Wirkkala, they continued to produce both new and older designs. In 1972, a devastating fire destroyed many of the company's records and prototypes, making VOLUME 28, ISSUE 4

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Venini Glassware, Black Belt

by Peter Marino

GAS RESOURCE LINKS To access the Glass Art Society’s up-to-date resources, just click on the links below.

CLASSES EXHIBITIONS AND WORKSHOPS

things difficult for a few years. But, Venini carried on and continued the tradition of inviting great artists and designers to make work for the company, like Swedish designers Owe Thorssen and Brigitta Karlsson, Finnish sculptor / designer Timo Sarpaneva, and Americans like designer Tina Aufiero, artists Toots Zynsky, Dale Chihuly and Richard Marquis, and architect /artist James Carpenter.

In 1985 the Gardini and Ferruzi company bought out Venini, continuing its tradition of working with some of the best, including architects Alessandro Medini, Gae Aulenti and Ettore Sottssas, designer Elena Cutolo, sculptor / jeweler Giorgio Vigna, artists Monica Guggisberg and Philip Baldwin, to name just a few.

In 1992 the company hired a new artistic director, architect Roberto Gasparotto, who has been with Venini ever since. Like previous directors, he works with new and old designs, and invites those from the world of art and industry to collaborate with classically trained master craftspeople to continue Venini's vision of looking to the past while never being afraid to take a bold leap into the future.

In 2001 the company was purchased

by Giancarlo Chimento, and again in 2016 by the Damiani family, who owns an international fine jewelry brand. They have maintained their commitment to working

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with outside artists and designers including designers and architects Ron Arad, Taddeo Ando, Alessandro Mendini, Massimiliano Fuksas and Peter Marino – who they currently work with.

Shown along the images of the Venini factory floor are images of the latest glass to come out of the ovens, designed by Marino, a limited-edition series of work called “Black Belt”. Just like Venini's first collaboration with Lundgren in 1938, the factory continues the tradition of producing glass by inviting international designers to collaborate with the skilled craftspeople of Murano.

Were it not for Venini, the studio glass movement would not have thrived. Venini was responsible for creating many of the techniques artists working in glass use today including: developing the team environment of glassmaking; fostering the idea that industrial glass, art, and design did not have to be separate; and that the way into the future of glass was to break down these barriers and invite others to bring a new perspective to the material.

As we all gather for the GAS Conference, we must thank institutions like Venini that were so instrumental in allowing studio glass to flourish.

Max Grossman is a glass artist, toolmaker, and guerrilla educator. He lives and works out of Venice, California.

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CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS

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FOR SALE

CALLS TO ARTISTS

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