Venini Biography
Venini (1921 - ) is the renowned manufacturer of Murano glass objects, in particular vases and lamps. Founded in 1921 by the Venetian antiques dealer Giacomo Cappellin and the Milanese lawyer Paolo Venini, the brand has collaborated with artists of the caliber of Carlo and Tobia Scarpa, Gio Ponti, Tommaso Buzzi, Tyra Lundgren, Tapio Wirkkala, Fulvio Bianconi and Massimo Vignelli, as well as to Paolo Venini himself. More recently, these historical names have been joined by contemporary designers such as Fabio Novembre, Luca Nichetto, Gaetano Pesce, Matteo Thun, Atelier Oï, Studio Job, Emmanuel Babled, Harri Koskinen, Diego Chilò, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec and Leonardo Ranucci. The Venini furnace is the only one capable of producing one hundred and twenty-five colors of glass. The most famous object of the brand is undoubtedly the Fazzoletto blown glass vase, designed in 1948 by Fulvio Bianconi and Paolo Venini and still produced by hand in the Murano factory by the company's master glassmakers. For over fifty years, Venini's handkerchief has been exhibited in numerous museums. The brand's creations are part of the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum and the MOMA in New York, the Cartier Foundation in Paris, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Since 2016, the company has been controlled by the Damiani family of the international high jewelry brand of the same name. The company was founded in 1921 on the island of Murano with the name "Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C" with the painter Vittorio Zecchin as artistic director. After the dissolution of the partnership with Giacomo Cappellin (1887 - 1968), Paolo Venini (1895 - 1959) founded his own company, Venini & C., in 1925, managing it personally until his death in 1959. In 1932 Tommaso Buzzi and Carlo Scarpa took over from Martinuzzi as artistic directors of Venini & C. Carlo Scarpa maintained a fruitful collaboration with Venini for ten years, designing some of the brand's most famous classics and introducing new surfaces in beaten, ground, engraved, corroded glass, murrine and glass manufacturing techniques. coloring. In the 1940s the production of new items was interrupted by the war. The company recovered by collaborating with Gio Ponti, who designed several lines in 1946. In 1948 Fulvio Bianconi began working for Venini, giving great impetus to the company's post-war recovery; he remained at Venini until the 1990s. Since 1980 many artists have designed for Venini including Laura and Alessandro Venini (sons of Anna Venini), Tapio Wirkkala, Massimo Vignelli, Dale Chihuly, Richard Marquis, Timo Sarpaneva, Alessandro Mendini, Toots Zynski, Ettore Sottsass and Gae Aulenti.
