October 2013 Notable review - Carlo Scarpa Venini , 1932–1947

Marino Barovier

Carlo Scarpa: Venini, 1932–1947

By Marino Barovier
Skira (May 2013)
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Reviewer: Book Board member Norman Weinstein (ArchNewsNow.com)

Carlo Scarpa: Venini, 1932–1947 by Marino Barovier, 2013 (Skira)

The author’s name and family authority should resonate with lovers of Venetian glass because the Baroviers have been in the Murano glass business since 1295 C.E., making it arguably the oldest company of family artisans ever. Marino Barovier has written with charm and impressive erudition about Venetian glass art in general, and Carlo Scarpa as glass designer in particular in his previously published, and sadly out-of-print Carlo Scarpa: Glass of an Architect. Scarpa’s glass-designing career centered on work at two Venetian companies, M.V.M. Cappelin and Venini. The newly published Carlo Scarpa: Venini 1932–1947 drops mention of Scarpa’s Cappelin oeuvre previously illuminated in Glass of an Architect, in favor of his more technically accomplished, more wildly colorful and dramatically patterned Venini glass works. The result? A keenly written and photographically masterful catalogue raisonné of nearly 300 of Scarpa’s most daring glass designs (the contents of the 2012 exhibition in Venice “Venetian Glass: Carlo Scarpa,” coming to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in abbreviated form in November 2013).

Carlo Scarpa, Murine Romane designed for Venini, 1936. Photo: courtesy of Le Stanze del Vetro, Venice

Carlo Scarpa, Decoro a fili, designed for Venini, 1942–47. The thread-decorated vases are part of one of the last series designed by Scarpa for Venini. The surface of these clear glass items is coiled with hot-applied multicolored threads arranged in a more or less thick irregular pattern. From Carlo Scarpa: Venini, 1932–1947, courtesy of Skira

The book categorizes glass pieces by production techniques. Within every production technique category are examples of decorative glass (vases and plates) and non-decorative glass (candlesticks). This banquet of thumbnail and full-size photos of the pieces accompanied by exhibition-terse captions is prefaced by six interpretative essays by various historians and critics, and a poignant memoir by Carlo Scarpa’s son Tobias (who has had a long and successful glass-designing career since his father’s death.). If you suspect that the 2013 Met Scarpa exhibition hints at a richer story, this grand summary of how Scarpa brought the fiery spirit of freshly minted modernism to the ancient art of Venetian glass offers a passionately panoramic overview.

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