Carlo Scarpa's Venetian glassware for Venini goes on show at the Met in New York

The Venetian glass designed by Italian architect Carlo Scarpa for Venini is the focus of a major exhibtion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

The Venetian glass designed by Italian architect Carlo Scarpa for Venini is the focus of a major exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

(Image credit: Carlo Scarpa)

By Stephanie Murg

last updated 11 October 2022

in News

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.

A photo of an exhibition featuring various pieces of artwork. — 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.

Various pieces in a glass exhibition. — 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

A table with a series of items on display. — Scarpa's glass innovations - from his bubble-studded *bollicine* pieces to the rare, ceramic-like *murrine* *opache* works - appear both daring and timeless

A thick glass bowl — Thick glass bowl with irregular battuto finish, c.1940, part of the 'Battuti' series. *Courtesy of The Steinberg Foundation*

One black vase on the left. One yellow vase on the right. — 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*

Exhibition in The Met. — The Met partnered with the prestigious Le Stanze del Vetro museum in Venice to bring the works to exhibition

Two glasses. — 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

Glassware in a clear and green colour. — 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*

A multi-coloured vase. — Truncated cone-shaped glass vase crafted using the *murrine romane* technique, c.1936

Grey glass perfume bottle — 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 glass. — 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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Stephanie Murg is a writer and editor based in New York who has contributed to Wallpaper* since 2011. She is the co-author of Pradasphere (Abrams Books), and her writing about art, architecture, and other forms of material culture has also appeared in publications such as Flash Art, ARTnews, Vogue Italia, Smithsonian, Metropolis, and The Architect’s Newspaper. A graduate of Harvard, Stephanie has lectured on the history of art and design at institutions including New York’s School of Visual Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.