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Cappellin Venini&Co - such was the name of the company that first appeared on the scene in Murano, Venice. It was in 1921 that two somewhat atyipical personalities joined the world of Murano glass-making enterprises in Venice. They were Giacomo Cappellin, a Venetian antiques dealer, and Paolo Venini, a lawyer from Milan with a glass-making tradition way back in his family. Under the artistic direction of the painter Vittorio Zecchin, Cappellin Venini&Co laid the foundations for a stylistic identity that still survives today: breaking away from the traditional designs, focusing their gaze on the artistic avant-garde, developing an exceptional techical expertise thanks to the contribution of the best master glass-makers on the island of Murano. The first objects were exhibited in 1922 at the Biennale in Venice and in 1923, in Monza at the time of the first Exhibition of Decorative Arts. Their success was underscored in 1925 at the great Decorative Arts Exhibition in Paris, where Cappellin Venini&Co displayed a collection of their works. In 1925, the company split up and the V.S.M. Venini&Co company was established under the artistic direction of the sculptor Napoleone Martinozzi introducing new ideas and new tecnologies, among which the "pulegoso" glass. Martinuzzi s great passion for glass is also expressed in monumental works, such as the fountain made for the Quadrienalle exhebition in Rome in 1931 and the bas-reliefs, iluminated partitions and glass mosaics produced for the architect Angelo Mazzoni. In 1932 having acquired a very thorough understanding of the material, Paolo Venini became more and more involved in the artistic direction of the company that he had founded and he began working with some of the most important artists, designers and architects of his time. Together with the more srtrictly artistic products ,some of their most famous and outstanding works included a number of chandeliers designed for public halls and stately homes. Paolo Venini died in Venice in 1959. The company passed into the hands of his son-in-law, the architect Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, who kept the founders spirit of innovation and reserch alive. In 1993 Venini returned to the Biennale in Venice with a grandiose scolpture by Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu, called "Il cavallo di Leonardo" (Leonardo s Horse). In 1994 he took part in the exhibition entitled "The Italian Metamorphosis" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 1996, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Venini s glassmaking activities, a limited series was made of 75 pieces each of four famous art works from the Venini Museum. The Giorgio Cini Foundation in Venice houses an exhibition that retraces the 75 years of Venini s glassmaking activities. In 2001 Venini S.p.A. was taken over by the Italian Luxury Indusries Group. In our gallery you can aquire the vases by: Rodolfo Dordoni, Tapio Wirkkala, Tobia Scarpa, Fluvio Bianconi and Paolo Venini. |
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