Exhibitions

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The renowned Velarium created for the roof of Palazzo Grassi and the large polyhedron chandelier designed by Carlo Scarpa for ‘Italia 61’ will remain on display in the rooms of the Fondazione Cini until July 2023

The two large installations part of the exhibition ‘Venini: Light 1921-1985’, curated by Marino Barovier, and set up in the galleries of the Fondazione Cini, next to the Basilica, will remain open to the public until 9 July 2023. Visitors will thus have the opportunity to admire for a few more months the renowned Velarium – crafted for the skylight of Palazzo Grassi and consisting of a series of ‘festoons’ with steel cables and balloton crystal glass spheres – and the monumental polychrome polyhedron chandelier, consisting of around four thousand elements and designed by Carlo Scarpa for the Veneto pavilion at the 1961 ‘Italia 61’ exhibition in Turin.

Starting on January 14 free guided tours are scheduled every Saturday and Sunday at 12 noon in English and at 3.30 pm in Italian. Free guided tours can also be requested at any other time, except on Wednesdays, by booking at least two days in advance.

It is still possible to visit ‘Venini: Light 1921-1985’, which was on display at LE STANZE DEL VETRO, through the virtual tour. Those wishing to learn more about the well-known furnace’s activities in the field of lighting can still book free guided online tours: these will be held on Thursdays and Fridays at 6 pm, for a minimum of five participants, and must be booked two days in advance.

All educational activities are free of charge subject to booking with Artsystem (artsystem@artsystem.it, freephone 800-662477, Mon-Fri from 10.00am to 5.00pm).

Installation view, ph. Enrico Fiorese

Installation view, ph. Enrico Fiorese

Bohemian Glass: The Great Masters

Curated by Caterina Tognon and Sylva Petrová

The next exhibition at LE STANZE DEL VETRO will be organized in collaboration with the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and will be dedicated to Bohemian glass after the Second World War, featuring the works by six major artists of contemporary glass sculpture: Václav Cigler, Vladimír Kopecký, Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, René Roubíček and Miluše Roubíčková.

The exhibition will close with a selection of 19 photos by Josef Sudek from the Glass Labyrinths series.

The forthcoming exhibition organized by LE STANZE DEL VETRO will be Bohemian Glass: The Great Masters, curated by Caterina Tognon and Sylva Petrová, which will run on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore from 14 May to 26 November 2023.

The exhibition will be organized in collaboration with the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and will recount the emancipation of Bohemian glass from its traditional categorization as applied and decorative art, as well as its use in the creation of influential abstract sculptural works in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) after the Second World War.

At the end of the Second World War, the troubled political, social and economic conditions in Czechoslovakia, which lasted until the fall of the socialist regime in 1989, prompted numerous artists to devote their research to glass craftsmanship. These works, designed by artists and crafted in furnaces by local skilled makers, were presented by the Czechoslovak Communist government at international events such as Expos, Biennials and Triennials.

Following the Communist Party’s seizure of power in 1948 and the imposition in Czechoslovakia of an aesthetic model based on socialist realism, a large group of artists devoted themselves instead to studying the characteristics and potential of glass as a medium.

The exhibition Bohemian Glass: The Great Masters will focus on the works of six artists who were trailblazers in contemporary sculpture: Václav Cigler, Vladimír Kopecký, Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová, René Roubíček and Miluše Roubíčková. Born in Bohemia in the first decades of the last century, they were the first to study and use glass to create sculptures, stained-glass windows, architectural structures, installations, and site-specific works. They also pointed many younger generations towards this medium through an intense educational activity in professional schools and art academies.

The exhibition will close with 19 photographs by Josef Sudek from the ‘Glass Labyrinths’ series, taken within the exhibition ‘Contemporary Bohemian Glass’ which was held in Prague in 1970 at the time of the 5th congress of the AIHV – the Association Internationale pour l’Histoire du Verre.

Stanislav Libensky e Jaroslava Brychtova, Head, 1957-58, courtesy UPM, Praha

Miluše Roubíčková, Head, unique piece, blown glass, courtesy Artist's heirs, ph G Urbanek

Works by Laura de Santillana and Alessandro Diaz de Santillana