It is not long now until 14 April 2024, when the next exhibition at LE STANZE DEL VETRO will open to the public: 1912-1930 Murano glass and the Venice Biennale. But we’re not just sitting twiddling our thumbs while we wait: quite the opposite, in fact! We’re taking the opportunity to explore together all the remarkable exhibitions dedicated to the art of glassmaking from the 20th century to the present-day, staged from 2012 onwards on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. After the focus in January on the exhibitions up to 2015, we are now taking a look at the key stages in the history of LE STANZE DEL VETRO from 2016 to 2019.
The first exhibition in 2016, curated by Rinald Franz, was The Glass of the Architects. Vienna 1900 – 1937, and it displayed to the public the legendary production of the key figures in Viennese Modernism through works from the collections of the MAK in Vienna.
The exhibition Paolo Venini and His Furnace, on the other hand, inaugurated in the autumn of 2016, celebrated the visionary activities of Paolo Venini, the founder of the Venini glassworks, as well as the incredibly rich production of the artists who collaborated with him over the years: Gio Ponti, Piero Fornasetti, Massimo Vignelli and Tobia Scarpa to name just a few.
2017 began with the exhibition Ettore Sottsass: the Glass, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, celebrating the centenary of Sottsass’s birth with many works on show for the first time. In the autumn of the same year, LE STANZE DEL VETRO exhibited the works of Vittorio Zecchin, the artistic director of the V.S.M. Cappellin Venini & C. glassware company from 1921 to 1925, with an exhibition curated by Marino Barovier: Vittorio Zecchin. Transparent glass for Cappellin and Venini. Zecchin’s works in glass are characterized by their classical proportions and clean lines, in contrast with the typical Murano production of the time.
A Furnace in Marseille. Cirva, curated by Isabelle Reiher and Chiara Bertola, was inaugurated in 2018, and was dedicated to CIRVA (the Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts Plastiques) in Marseille. Staged unusually at two different venues (LE STANZE DEL VETRO and the Fondazione Querini Stampalia), the exhibition displayed works by 17 artists, dedicating a gallery to each one, exploring the full period each artist spent at the Marseille furnace.
In the autumn of 2018, LE STANZE DEL VETRO hosted the exhibition The M.V.M. Cappellin Glassworks and the Young Carlo Scarpa 1925-1931, curated by Marino Barovier: a comprehensive account of the history of the glassworks as a whole, with a particular focus on the influence of the young Carlo Scarpa, who played an important role in the company’s production from 1926 to 1931.
In 2019, LE STANZE DEL VETRO featured a French artist whose work paved the way for much of contemporary glass production. The exhibition Maurice Marinot. The Glass, 1911 – 1934 shone a light on a versatile artist who was still not well-known to the general public. 2019 ended with an exhibition on the history and works of another foreign artist who made his mark on the history of Murano: Thomas Stearns at Venini, curated by Marino Barovier. After an initial period during which he familiarized himself with the Murano techniques, this American artist brought some totally innovative approaches that led to the creation of some highly successful works during the 1960s.