Skira Venini: Light 1921-1985

Lighting, whether for domestic use or for the grander areas of public or private spaces of ministerial buildings or post offices, of theatres or hotels, represents an important constituent of Murano glass production. The Venini firm distinguished itself with significant results also in this sector, particularly because of its constant ability to modernise and its characteristic openness to the world of design, aspects which made it a reference point for the foremost national and international architects. This volume, which covers a period from 1921 to 1985, illustrates the work of the glassworks in the area of lighting, on the larger or smaller scale, giving an overview of the most significant projects. More than five hundred cards, accompanied by a considerable body of hitherto mostly unpublished iconographic illustrations, document an unremitting activity made up of numerous projects of historical and cultural importance, among which those carried out in collaboration with Angiolo Mazzoni in the 1930s, the production of the velarium of Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 1951, the large installation by Carlo Scarpa for Italia 61 in Turin, the Fulda theatre in Germany in 1978 etc. A careful selection of works tells of the transformation of Venini lamps, their form and their material: from the elegant reworking of the traditional chandelier with arms to the new fixtures with modular elements, from Vittorio Zecchin to Carlo Scarpa, from Massimo Vignelli a Ludovico Diaz de Santillana. The volume, with material coming from the historic Venini archive and for the greater part unpublished previously, is also accompanied by a rich documentary apparatus made up of a substantial corpus of graphic illustrations (catalogue drawings, preparatory drawings for the Blue Catalogue and the pages of the Red Catalogue) for a total of more than four hundred images that contribute to telling the extraordinary story of the Venini company and light.