Carlo Scarpa would have been thrilled to learn that the works he designed for art-glass manufacturer Venini is now the subject of a major exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. 'I would rather, on the whole, build museums than skyscrapers - though logic may say otherwise,' the Italian architect once said, 'since the former may be perhaps creative, while the latter requires one to adapt and subordinate oneself to things as they are.'
His appetite for injecting bold new ideas, forms and processes into established traditions is apparent in each of the approximately 300 works in the new exhibition, adapted from a 2012 show at Le Stanze del Vetro in Venice. Scarpa's glass innovations - from his bubble-studded bollicine pieces to the rare, ceramic-like murrine opache works - appear both daring and timeless exhibited alongside the Met's Qing porcelain, ancient Greek and Roman cast glass and 19th-century Murano vessels.
Between 1932 and 1947, Scarpa served as artistic consultant to the Venetian glass company. He worked closely with its founder, Paolo Venini, and master glassblowers to create more than two dozen styles - in the process pioneering techniques, silhouettes and colours that modernised the ancient tradition of glassblowing.
His appetite for injecting bold new ideas, forms and processes into established traditions is apparent in each of the approximately 300 works in the new exhibition
Scarpa's glass innovations - from his bubble-studded bollicine pieces to the rare, ceramic-like murrine opache works - appear both daring and timeless
Thick glass bowl with irregular battuto finish, c.1940, part of the 'Battuti' series. Courtesy of The Steinberg Foundation
Thick black glass vase with battuto finish (left), c.1940, and yellow cased glass vase with battuto finish (right), c.1947, both part of the 'Battuti' series
Clear mole-gray (talpa) glass bowl with central abstract macchie decoration in blue and black glass, iridized c.1942, part of the 'Macchie' series. Courtesy of Chiara and Francesco Carraro Collection, Venice
The Met partnered with the prestigious Le Stanze del Vetro museum in Venice to bring the works to exhibition
Installation view of 'Venetian Glass by Carlo Scarpa: The Venini Company, 1932-1947'
Truncated cone-shaped glass vase with velato finish and incisi decorations (left), c.1940-42, and glass vase with jagged rim, velato finish and deep incisi decorations, c.1940-42, part of the 'Incisi' series
'Rigati e tessuti' glass vases and bowl, c.1938-1940, part of the 'Rigati e tessuti' series
Bottle, glasses, tray and small bowl in clear uncoloured a spirale glass with aquamarine (acquamare) decoration, c.1936, part of the 'A Cerchi, A Fasce, A Spirale' series, c.1936-1938. Lent by the Steinberg Foundation, courtesy of the Corning Museum of Glass
Truncated cone-shaped glass vase crafted using the murrine romane technique, c.1936
Thick smoke-gray glass perfume bottle with stopper consisting of overlaid clear glass layers of different colours with hot-applied bugne and iridized surface, c.1940, part of the 'Iridati' series
Green ovoid sommerso glass vase with gold-leaf inclusions and twisted ribbing on the interior, c.1934, part of the 'Sommersi' series. Lent by the Steinberg Foundation, courtesy of the Corning Museum of Glass
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