Large Handmade Blue Glass Bowl by Timo Sarpaneva for Venini Murano, Italy, 1992

One of postwar Finland’s most celebrated designers, Timo Sarpaneva was born to a family of blacksmiths and textiles artists in Helsinki in 1926. He studied graphic design and drafting at the Taideteollinen Korkeakoulu (now known as the Aalto University School of Arts, Design & Architecture) between 1941 and ’48. In 1949, he won a prize in glass design from Riihimäki Glassworks, and the following year Karhula-Iittala hired him as a designer and exhibition programmer. Sarpaneva’s designs for Iittala earned both the man and the company international acclaim, particularly through presentations at the Triennale di Milano in the 1950s.

Inspired by modernist principles of reduction and experimentation, Sarpaneva pioneered a number of new techniques and forms in glass design. Among his early innovations at Iittala was a steam-blowing technique that led to his famous Lansetti/Lancet (1952), Kajakki/Kayak (1953), and Orkidea/Orchid (1953) vessels. Around 1955-56, Sarpaneva developed his iconic, industrially produced, strikingly hued i-Linja series—alongside the lowercase “i” that remains Iittala’s logo today. Around the same time, US-based magazine House Beautiful called Sarpaneva’s Orkidea Vase “The Most Beautiful Object of the Year.” Another notable Sarpaneva project for Iittala was Finlandia (1964), a series of patterned glass vases that employ roughly hewn wood molds in the production process.

Though he’s best remembered for glass, Sarpaneva also created designs for textiles, carpets, ceramics, tableware, sculptures, and more. In 1960, he designed a cast-iron casserole pot—noted for its Japanese-inspired teak handle—for W. Rosenlew & Co. His Suomi Teapot for Rosenthal (1974) remains highly collectible today. Through his long career, Sarpaneva collaborated with Corning, Opa, Primo, Villayhtymä, and Venini, among others.

Among the honors bestowed upon Sarpaneva are multiple Grand Prix from the Triennale di Milano (two in 1954 and two in 1957), the Lunning Prize (1956), the International Design Award from the American Institute of Interior Designers (1963, 1969), and the Gold Medal from the President of Italy (1976). His work can be found in museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper-Hewitt, Victoria & Albert, Stedeliijk Museum, Nationalmuseum Stockholm, and Design Museum Helsinki.

Sarpaneva died in Helsinki in 2006.

Venini—the world famous Italian glass company—traces it roots to 1921, when Paolo Venini (1895-1959), a Milan lawyer with glassmaking ancestors, and Giacomo Cappellin (1887-1968), a Venetian antiques dealer, launched the Cappellin Venini & C. glass factory on the island of Murano. Under the art direction of Vittorio Zecchin, Cappellin and Venini’s business produced high quality, Renaissance-style goblets, pitchers, and vases.

In 1925, following a dispute with Zecchin, Cappellin and Venini split their business in two. Venini’s business took the name Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C., along with a new, visionary art director, Napoleone Martinuzzi. Venini soon became synonymous with flamboyantly hued art glass and glass lighting at the cutting edge of contemporary aesthetics.

From 1927 to 1932, Venini explored a series of new, techniques—like pasta vitrea (opaque glass), vetro incamiciato (layered glass), and vetro pulegoso (bubble glass)—which engendered particularly experimental forms for the time. Venini’s reputation for innovation grew through exhibitions at national fairs, like the Venice Biennale, Monza, and eventually the Triennale di Milano. Around this time, Venini went into to partnership with Gio Ponti, Pietro Chiesa, Emilio Lancia, Michele Marelli, Tomaso Buzzi, and Carlo Visconti di Modrone to form Il Labirinto, an association for the promotion of modern design.

In 1932, Martinuzzi decided to dedicate himself to sculpture, and Venini’s artistic directorship went to architects Tomaso Buzzi and Carlo Scarpa. The modernist vision they brought to Venini represented an exciting, modernist turn for the company. Scarpa was particularly interested in capturing and amplifying light’s interaction with glass and was instrumental in developing new techniques like battuto (beaten glass), tessuto (glass with lines), granulare (glass with small globules), and murina (patterned glass made from rods).

Following World War II, Venini continued to produce glass in a modern idiom, frequently in collaboration with important midcentury designers and architects—not only Carlo Scarpa and Gio Ponti, but also BBPR,Fulvio Bianconi, Roberto Menghi, Tobia Scarpa, Massimo Vignelli, and Tapio Wirkkala.

When Paolo Venini passed away in 1959, his company passed to his son-in-law, Ludovico Diaz De Santillan. In the 1970s, Ludovico’s daughter, Laura, managed the company, until the Gardini and Ferruzzi families acquired it in the mid-1980s. Through the end of the 20th century, Venini continued to work with outstanding design talents, including Gae Aulenti,Mario Bellini, Alessandro Mendini, Timo Sarpaneva, and Ettore Sottsass.

In 2001, Venini was acquired by Italian Luxury Industries. In the 21^st century, the company has commissioned designs from the likes of Tadao Ando, Atelier Biagetti, Atelier Oï, Barber Osgerby, the Bouroullec brothers, the Campana brothers, Gaetano Pesce, Matteo Thun, and Studio Job. In 2011, Venini celebrated its 90^th anniversary with a travelling exhibition that visited the Glass Museum of Murano, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana in Venice, the Shanghai Museum of Glass, and the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan. The first exhibition dedicated to the glass produced by Carlo Scarpa for Venini was a critical and popular success in 2013-14 when it showed at Le Stanze del Vetro in Venice and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Venini glass can be found in the permanent collections of the Louvre, V&A, MoMA, and more.

* Images courtesy of Venini