Franco Bucci Biography
Franco Bucci was born in Colbordolo, in the province of Pesaro, in 1933. He graduated from the "Ferruccio Mengaroni" Art Institute as an Art Master in the metals section. In 1954, he began his career as a teacher of enamel on metal, which he continued until 1968. In the same year, he co-founded the "Mastro 3" laboratory together with Paolo Sgarzini and Vladimiro Vanni, which produced enamelled copper objects.
In the late 1950s, he approached ceramics, sharing his experience as a designer for the "Villeroy & Boch" ceramic manufacturer with Federigo Fabbrini. In 1958, Federigo Fabbrini invited Franco Bucci and Nanni Valentini to work in his laboratory. Between the late 1950s and early 1960s, Franco Bucci participated in numerous exhibitions both in Italy and abroad and in 1960 he won a silver medal at the Milan Triennale.
In 1961, he founded, together with other partners, including Nanni Valentini, the "Laboratorio Pesaro" factory, of which he became artistic director in 1966. In this position, he created a vast range of objects characterized by purity and essentiality of shape, combined with an absolute lack of color. In 1968, he took first place at the Cervia National Ceramics Exhibition.
In 1970, he was called, together with Federigo Fabbrini, as a designer by the ceramic industry Villeroy & Boch. In 1972, it gained official recognition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Subsequently, he returned to Italy and agreed to work as a designer for the "Gruppo Ceramiche Iris".
In the 1980s, he operated in his Pesaro studio in Strada Romagna 45. In 1987, he began to experiment with the production of large monolithic ceramic slabs, thanks to a mixture he patented, which allowed him to obtain slabs of up to 2m x 1m. In 1995, he sold the company and remained artistic director until 1998, the year in which he opened a ceramic workshop where he created unique and small series pieces.
In the following years, he began research on porcelain, which in 2000 led to the patent of another ceramic material highly resistant to fire and thermal shock. Among the collaborators of the last years of production we remember Loreno Sguanci.
Franco Bucci died in Pesaro in 2002 after having created the Terracottas Museum in Fratterosa, a small village with an ancient ceramic tradition, in the province of Pesaro.
