PAOLO VENINI AND HIS FURNACE. VENETIAN GLASS 1934 – 1959

Exhibition curators: Sylva Petrová and Marino Barovier
Exhibition design: Dušan Seidl
Graphic design: Colmo Studio

This unique exhibition of Venetian glass was prepared in collaboration with Venice’s leading international glass institution LE STANZE DEL VETRO. The exhibition concept draws on extensive research that culminated in a representative exhibition by the curator Marino Barovier on San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.

The presentation of Venetian glass from 1934–1959 centres on the figure of Paolo Venini (1895–1959), founder and artistic director of the Murano firm Venini and the designer of works that his studio successfully produced and sold throughout Europe and further abroad. Venini’s works are complemented by a selection of objects designed by his colleagues, such as Tobia Scarpa, Charles Lin Tissot, Gio Ponti, Riccardo Licata, and Ken Scott. The UPM exhibition comprises more than a hundred items on loan from private collections.

Paolo Venini (1895–1959) was born in the Lombard town of Cusano Milanino; despite graduating in law, after World War I he moved to the island of Murano and entered the glassmaking trade. In 1921 he established the successful firm of Vetri Soffiati Muranesi, and in 1925 he co-founded a new workshop called V.S.M. Venini & C. together with the sculptor Napoleone Martinuzzi and the engineer Francesco Zecchini. As a visionary, Paolo Venini’s was able to recognise both the artistic trends of his time and the demands of the international market. Supported by his technical department, he created several new series of functional and decorative objects, expanding the firm’s iconic portfolio. He initiated fruitful cooperative ties with a number of prominent figures: the architects Tomaso Buzzi and Carlo Scarpa during the 1930s and 1940s or the designer Fulvio Bianconi, among many others, after World War II.

The exhibition includes an activity zone where visitors can examine two examples of how the murrine technique is applied in international glass art.

The exhibition is held with financial support from the European Union and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and under the auspices of the Embassy of the Italian Republic in Prague, in cooperation with the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague.