Carlo Scarpa: Venini 1932-1947
Marino Barovier
A splendid catalogue devoted to the work of an artist who was responsible for some of the most original glass artworks in art history. Through around 300 works, documents, and original drawings from private collections and museums from all over the world, this important volume reconstructs the work and life of Carlo Scarpa from the very beginnings of his career when he worked as artistic director for the Venini glassworks, between 1932 and 1947. The experience acquired in those years offered Scarpa the possibility of following the experimental vocation that was to also distinguish his work as an architect, and to carry forward research intended to investigate the expressive possibilities of glass the material, to experiment with the age-old crafting techniques of the old masters of Murano and to update the traditional forms of craftsmanship in glass. It is no coincidence that Scarpa’s glasswork can be organized into no less than thirty distinct styles, differentiated by the technique of execution and the glass construction method used. We need only think of the corrosi (corroded), in which the material is attacked and eaten into by sawdust soaked in hydrofluoric acid. Under Scarpa’s artistic direction the forms created at the Venini glassworks are more sober and modern, with geometrical inspiration, and above all, the importance of the role of the designer is established in the history of 20th-century Venetian glass, which owes much of its substantial renewal to him.
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