and Design The creative process in the historic glass factories of the 20th century

Curated by Caterina Toso

InGalleria - Punta Conterie 2 February — 31 December 2020

“The design, the concept, are not enough on their own. A good design can never be translated into a work of art without the expert touch of the master glassmaker” — Caterina Toso

On 1 February 2020 the exhibition space of InGalleria — Punta Conterie was the scene of the opening of Glass and Design -The creative process in the historic Murano glass factories of the 20th century, an exhibition project curated by Caterina Toso, glass historian and inheritor of the Fratelli Toso Archive, which is dedicated to retracing Murano decade by decade as it was in the last century: a source of ideas, art, innovation but also an extraordinary and hardworking productive and commercial hub on an international scale.

The exhibition, which follows on from the inaugural project . Glasswork, is part of the programme of exhibitions and events promoted by Punta Conterie - in a unique cultural calendar with a four monthly rhythm - in the Murano and Venetian panorama, in which glass art, design, visual arts experience new modes of expression. With alternating glimpses at the contemporary scene and that of the past, the projects to emerge in the new Murano hub will be the elements of innovation, experimentation and cross-pollination between different disciplines which have always characterised the glass art of Murano.

Glass and Design -The creative process in the historic Murano glass factories of the 20th century is no exception to this approach, investigating the close relationship that has always linked the world of design and the world of glass. By means of a well-planned route, the exhibition brings to the halls of InGalleria about 50 artistic glass objects made in the years between 1910 and the 1980s, iconic works which speak not only of the factories which made them but also of the times in which they were created, with the addition of drawings telling their story: sketches, preparatory drawings, drawings for the furnace, definitive post-production drawings, glossy images for catalogues.

Fratelli Toso, Barovier&Toso, SALIR, Venini, AVEM, Seguso Vetri d'Arte, Vetreria Aureliano Toso, Vistosi, Galliano Ferro: these are the local glassworks selected by the curator Caterina Toso for their historicity (all were founded in the first half of the last century). These are large factories where the figure of the designer remained very distinct from that of the master glass-maker, although a close collaboration between them was never absent. The exhibition is an in-depth focus, moving from the glass to the role of design and on to the structure of the archives of the Murano glassworks, archives that, once decoded, give a more precise image of how the twentieth century firms worked.

The route comes to life on the second floor of Punta Conterie and winds through the rooms of InGalleria with a character that is not only historical, but also educational and contemporary. The entire exhibition presents a chronological itinerary reconstructed to recreate exact parallels between design and glass creations by means of original drawings and, where these were not available, from historical photos, details and curiosities. The visitor will be greeted by a chandelier by Galliano Ferro – a company specialising in the lighting sector – designed by Giorgio Ferro, before entering the first room where 10 original volumes show how the Twentieth century was archived on paper. The second room of InGalleria houses the glass slab with sand-engraved profiles designed by Vittorio Zecchin and continues with an exhibition of three-dimensional objects – principally vases – each approximately 40 cm in height, and where groups of works belonging to the same original series are also on display. Before concluding, the exhibition tells of the diversity of the Sixties and Seventies, a period in which the production approach evolved to become semi-industrial, preferring monochromatic options, and often created by means of mould blowing. A trip back then, into the world of design from which emerge the names of some great twentieth- century glass designers, from Tomaso Buzzi to Fulvio Bianconi, from Ercole Barovier to Dino Martens whose designs found perfect execution in the hands of the Murano masters. Drawings and works, in addition to the archival material on display, from the glassworks of Fratelli Toso, Barovier &Toso, SALIR, A.Ve.M and Galliano Ferro, and from the Giorgio Cini Foundation and the Centro Studi Vetro (Centre for Glass Studies) with the designs of Venini, Seguso Vetri d’Arte and Aureliano Toso.

The works, all original glass creations, come from important Italian and foreign private collections, including the German collection of Lutz H. Holz and from the heirs of Vistosi. Many pieces were presented at the Biennale, others are lesser - known works: a previously unseen design by Hans Stoltenberg Lerche originally executed by Fratelli Toso or the window glass designed by Vittorio Zecchin for the doors of the SALIR company.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue produced by the Designwork graphic studio of Udine. Among its pages you can read the words of Marc Heiremans, one of the most important researchers into Murano glass and an expert on the Twentieth century.

The exhibition space: InGalleria The exhibition space that unites the world of glass with that of design and visual arts.

Stretching over a dynamic 200 square metre space designed to accommodate projects related to the art of glass, the visual arts and site-specific installations. The representative architectural elements are typical of the Murano tradition, restructured and placed in the industrial context of the "ex-Conterie". The ceiling with original exposed beams and herringbone oak flooring are the setting for an environment enhanced by the relationship between the natural outdoor light of Murano and the lighting within.

Biography The curator: Caterina Toso

Caterina Toso is the last heir of the Toso family founder of Fratelli Toso glass factory in 1854. Since 2012 she runs the Artistic Glass Collection Fratelli Toso and she takes care of the research and digitalization of the historical archive of Fratelli Toso glass factroy. She is co-author, together with Marc Heiremans, of the book Fratelli Toso Murano 1902-1980, published in 2018. Expert in Murano glass of ‘900, Caterina Toso works in art consulting, she certifies glass art-works for collectors and private galleries and she also curates modern and contemporary art-glass exhibitions.

The selected glass factories

A.Ve.M The Vetreria Arte Vetraria Muranese, better known as A.Ve.M, was founded in 1932 by Galliano Ferro, Emilio Nason, Luigi Ferro and his children Ottone and Egidio Ferro. Most known artistic results have been realized by Giulio Radi, who achieved extraordinary results in his technical and chemical research into glass, Giorgio Ferro, who introduced originally shaped designs and he is mostly remembered for his “Anse Volanti” series and Anzolo Fuga, specialised in creating glass walls, who designed complex pieces using strong contrasting colours, paying close attention to chiaroscuro and playing with transparency and opacity.

Aureliano Toso Vetri Decorativi di Murano - Rag. Aureliano Toso was founded in 1938. The collaboration between Aureliano Toso and the artist Dino Martens had started years before, but it wasn't until 1947 that Martens became artistic director for his company. He worked there permanently until 1959 and then occasionally until 1963. From the beginning of his collaboration with Aureliano Toso, Dino Martens showed not only incredible imagination in the creation of new shapes but also great knowledge of glass and blowing techniques.

Barovier&Toso The glass factory Artisti Barovier, founded in 1886, became Vetreria Artistica Barovier & Co in 1919; since the beginning Ercole Barovier showed leading artistic and innovative drive within the glass factory and in 1930 he became its main designer. In particular, he specialized in chemical research for glass colouring. Thanks to his technical experiments he invented a type of glass known as primavera. The society was then rearranged and it became Ferro Toso Barovier Vetrerie Artistiche Riunite and finally Barovier Toso & C in 1939. Over the years Ercole continued his research on glass with stylistic and technical experiments, focusing on all the possible applications of murrine and the use of colour with his technique of colouring through heat without fusion, which he kept using and experimenting with until the end of his career.

Fratelli Toso Founded in 1854 by six brothers, Fratelli Toso was one of the first Muranese glass factories to resume business after the nineteenth-century crisis. Ermanno Toso took charge of the artistic direction in the late 1920s until the late 1960s. Under his direction, the production went from light and linear hand- blown pieces, typical of the 1920s, to heavier shapes preferred during the 1930s and 1940s, but the company never stopped experimenting with murrine. Giusto and Renato, Ermanno's sons, and their cousin Rosanna Toso also started collaborating as designers in the 1960s. Rosanna continued working on murrine with great interest, but she also devoted herself to series more suited for catalogues, in line with the 1970s style.

Galliano Ferro Giorgio Ferro directed the glass factory Galliano Ferro from 1972 to 2001, recognized to be leader in the manufacture of classic and traditional Murano chandeliers. After working as designer at A.Ve.M., in 1955 he followed his father, who founded Galliano Ferro glass factory with some of the best glass masters of the time. He did not just kept copying ancient models, he renewed traditional forms with different modern and innovative solutions: he updated the tradition by improving quality and design.

SALIR SALIR (Studio Ars Labor Industrie Unite) was founded in 1923 by Guglielmo Barbini, Giuseppe D'Alpaos, Gino Francesconi and Decio Toso: the company specializes in cold working, engraving, grinding, sandblasting and engraving with gold leaf application. In 1926 the Bohemian engraver Franz Pelzel and the artist and graphic designer Guido Balsamo Stella started to work with SALIR. They also often collaborated with the artist Vittorio Zecchin. In the post-war period a new generation of important artists collaborated with the company, like Ettore Sottsass, Vinicio Vianello and Riccardo Licata.

Seguso Vetri d'Arte In 1933 Napoleone Barovier, Luigi Olimpo Ferro, Antonio Seguso and his sons Archimede and Ernesto decided to leave Vetreria Artistica Barovier & C. to found their own company, Vetreria Artistica e Soffieria Barovier Seguso e Ferro. become designer for the company in 1934. The company's production before the WWII consisted mainly of sculptures, ornamental objects and solid glass figures, all worked using heat; this continued during the post-war period. Production continued to focus on thick and heavy glass sculptures and, during the 1950s, Flavio Poli started experimenting greatly with the submerged technique. Thanks to the great feedback he received, Poli continued to create series with this technique during the 1950s using different chromatic variations.

Venini Napoleone Martinuzzi, first important artistic director for the company, introduced many innovations in the production, such as opaque glass paste, incamiciato glass and pulegoso. He left the Venini company in 1932 and Tomaso Buzzi worked as artistic director for some years. He introduced an interesting technique using incamiciato inside out: a coloured piece of glass was covered with a layer of clear glass and gold leaf. In 1934 Carlo Scarpa took up the role of artistic director and introduced heavier and thicker shapes, such as "Sommersi", "Pesanti" and "Corrosi". Under the direction of Scarpa, which lasted until 1947, the company introduced many more innovations, always in great synergy with Paolo Venini, which were displayed in the most important exhibitions. In 1948 the glass factory started collaborating with Fulvio Bianconi, who gave a new artistic impulse to the company during the 1950s. Venini's relevance as a glass factory during the 1900s was certainly due to its great openness to collaborations with important artists and its new concept of design, conceived earlier then its contemporary glass factories.

Vistosi The Vistosi glass factory, mainly specialized in lighting products, was found in 1945 by Guglielmo Vistosi. After his death in 1952, the ownership of the company passed to his brother Oreste Vistosi and his sons Gino and Luciano. The key elements for the Vistosi glass factory were design objects, low production costs, increasingly high use of industrial processes and molds. Especially from the late 1950s the designs were provided by freelance architects and designers. During the 1960s many architects collaborated with the Vistosi company, helping them maintain their high artistic level: among them we remember Fulvio Bianconi, Angelo Mangiarotti, Enrico Capuzzo, Mario Abis and then Ettore Sottsass and Eleonore Peduzzi- Riva. The company had a very forward-thinking business concept and a productive system far from the Muranese artistic and artisan tradition.

Punta Conterie Fondamenta Giustinian, 1 30141 Murano, Venezia - Italia +39 041 5275174 [email protected] puntaconterie.com

Info Opening hours Owner: InGalleria e InGalleria Shop Punta del Museo Immobiliare Tuesday - Sunday: Curation services: 10am – 6pm Alessandro Vecchiato Graphic design: Press office Designwork AtemporaryStudio Web design: PR di G. Felluga e S. Punis Designwork [email protected] Press office: AtemporaryStudio atemporarystudio.com

Glass and design The creative process in the historic Murano glass factories of the 20th century

Curated by: Caterina Toso Coordination: Alessandro Vecchiato Sponsor: Lutz H. Holz Vistosi srl Organization coordination: Veal srl Exhibition design: Architetto Matteo Silverio