Luciano Zarotti

Luciano Zarotti and the Fucina degli Angeli

A significant chapter in Luciano Zarotti’s career is represented by his relationship with Venetian art glass, which developed from 1968 through an intense and long-lasting collaboration with the Fucina degli Angeli in Venice, founded and directed by Egidio Costantini.

The Fucina degli Angeli was one of the most original experimental workshops of the second half of the twentieth century, based on the encounter between the Murano glassmaking tradition and the research of contemporary artists. Costantini was its driving force and interpreter, involving numerous internationally renowned figures in the creation of works in glass. Within this context, Zarotti came into contact with artists such as Max Ernst, Paul Jenkins, Mark Tobey and Roberto Sebastián Matta, engaging directly with different languages and tendencies of contemporary art.

Within the Fucina, Zarotti did not limit himself to creative activity alone, but also served as an artistic adviser, taking part for more than thirty years in the principal exhibitions associated with the Venetian enterprise. His glass works form part of a broader artistic investigation marked by a constant interest in matter, light and the expressive possibilities offered by different techniques.

“Cuore alato” – 2010 – vetro di Murano, cm. 39 x 18 x 8
“Cuore alato – bozzetto per vetro” – 2003 – acquarello su carta, mm. 270 x 330

His experience with Costantini further expanded the scope of Zarotti’s experimentation, which already encompassed printmaking, painting, fresco and sculpture. In glass he found a material particularly suited to his sensibility: transparency, the refraction of light and the plastic qualities of the medium enabled him to translate into three dimensions the tension between gesture, colour and form that characterises a substantial part of his work.

The long collaboration with the Fucina degli Angeli therefore constitutes an important element in Zarotti’s artistic development and bears witness to his role in the renewal of the relationship between artist and master glassmaker in Venice during the second half of the twentieth century.

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