Paolo Venini

Biography

Born in Milan in 1895, he died in Venice in 1959. Entrepreneur and designer, a law school graduate, from 1921 through the year of his death, he dedicated himself to the glasshouse he founded, the Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Venini & C. (through 1925, Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Cappellin Venini &C.). A man of marked entrepreneurial talent, his goal from the very beginning was to expand his company’s influence abroad and he sought the collaboration, as artistic directors, of the most talented artists and architects of his time. He always worked at the side of his designers, with the goal of anticipating and directing taste, personally checking every collection produced by his furnace. His confident esthetic choices, along with the fine quality of the products, assured his glasshouse both critical and commercial success. He dedicated himself personally to design from the Thirties: his Diamante glass pieces date from 1936, and he created the murrine romane in collaboration with Carlo Scarpa. Following the war, he created bottles with brightly coloured stripes, vessels in mosaico zanfirico and mosaico tessuto, windows in vetro mosaico, battuto vessels. In collaboration with Bianconi he created vessels such as the fazzoletti which are a classic example of the production of the Fifties, and were enormously successful. His object gained unanimous enthusiasm right from the start and can be found in the most important museums throughout the world