Egidio Costantini (1917 - 2002) & Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973) Biography
EGIDIO COSTANTINI (1917 - 2002) Egidio Costantini was born in Brindisi on 22 April 1912. Upon his father's death in 1918, the family moved to Venice, where Egidio completed his technical studies, obtaining his radio operator's license. After his initial employment at the Motorboat Club of Venice, at the outbreak of the Second World War he found work as a clerk at the Commercial Bank of Venice and in his free hours he dedicated himself to the study of botany, so much so that he obtained a diploma from the University of Parma. In 1945 he moved to Carnia, where he started a business exploiting the wood resources of the area and here the idea of working with glass developed. Returning to Venice, he began working as a representative for some glass factories in Murano, thus having the opportunity to get to know the master glassmakers and all the details of glass processing, which he later dedicated himself to. In the desire to bring the art of glass to the level of sculpture and painting, he conceived the idea of a collaboration between the artist, the master glassmaker and himself to create glass sculptures starting from the drawings of contemporary artists. Thus he began to work with a group of Venetian artists from whom the Centro Studio Pittori nell'Arte del Vetro di Murano was born in 1950 and in 1954 he went to Paris with the intention of making his project known to the most famous artists of the time . Thus were born collaborations with Alexander Calder, Gino Severini and later also with Pablo Picasso, Jean Arp, Max Ernst and others. Once the Centro Studio Pittori disbanded in 1955, Costantini opened his own art gallery in Venice which he named Fucina degli Angeli, which after its initial success was forced to close in 1958. It reopened only in 1961 thanks to the financial help of the famous American collector Peggy Guggenheim, who three years later exhibited Fucina's works in her Venetian palace. Numerous exhibitions followed in the 70s and 80s both in Italy and abroad. The 90s consecrated Costantini as the "master of masters", the one who knew how to teach other artists how to transform their works into glass sculptures. In 2000, an exhibition of Fucina's works was held in Tolmezzo, followed in 2003 by an exhibition in Innsbruck. Main protagonist of the art of glass, Egidio Costantini died in Venice on 8 October 2007.
