Matching Pair of a Rooster and Hen by Fulvio Bianconi, Venini, Italy
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Matching Pair of a Rooster and Hen by Fulvio Bianconi, Venini, Italy
About the Item
- Creator:Venini (Manufacturer),Fulvio Bianconi (Artist)
- Dimensions:Height: 7.68 in (19.5 cm)Width: 4.53 in (11.5 cm)Depth: 8.27 in (21 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1950
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Signed 3 lines acid stamp “venini murano italia”. Very good condition.
- Seller Location:Brussels, BE
- Reference Number:Seller: C11_611stDibs: LU2994325840432
Fulvio Bianconi
For a range of work that includes everything from illustrating thousands of books and other publications to his role as a visionary glassmaker, Fulvio Bianconi is remembered as one of the most innovative cross-disciplinarian artists of the postwar era.
Born in Ponte di Brenta in 1915, Bianconi showed a prodigious talent for drawing at an early age and, as a teenager, earned money as a portraitist. He also worked as an apprentice decorator in his youth at the Murano glass furnaces, where he first discovered the art of glassmaking.
In 1933, he moved to Milan to pursue a career as a graphic artist, and it was there he met Dino Villani, a painter who had ties to some of Milan’s most prestigious publishing houses and advertising firms. However, at the onset of World War II, Bianconi paused his graphic design ambitions and joined the army. In 1944, he narrowly escaped the infamous Via Rasella Nazi raids in German-occupied Rome.
Following the war, Bianconi went to work designing perfume bottles for the Milan perfume house Giviemme at Venini glassworks, where he worked with glass masters Ermete and Arturo Biassuto. Bianconi became one of Venini’s most influential glass designers — and was appointed artistic director following Carlo Scarpa — known for his bold use of color, modern style and unique, playful designs. Among his most iconic works are the series of glass figures from the Commedia dell’Arte, the remarkably fluid “handkerchief” vases and bowls, and the patchwork “Pezzato” technique, which caused a sensation at the 25th Venice Biennale in 1950.
Bianconi worked with several other glass studios, including Cenedese in 1954 and Vistosi in 1963, creating decorative vases, bowls, hourglasses and sculptures. He was also a graphic designer with the Italian publishing house Garzanti for nearly 30 years. Bianconi’s portfolio of graphic design included work for FIAT, Pathé and Pirelli, among others.
Bianconi’s glassworks are held in museum collections worldwide, including London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. The artist died in 1996.
On 1stDibs, discover a range of vintage Fulvio Bianconi decorative objects, glassware and lighting.
Venini
Beginning in the 1930s — and throughout the postwar years especially — Venini & Co. played a leading role in the revival of Italy’s high-end glass industry, pairing innovative modernist designers with the skilled artisans in the centuries-old glass workshops on the Venetian island of Murano. While the company’s founder, Paolo Venini (1895–1959), was himself a highly talented glassware designer, his true genius was to invite forward-thinking Italian and international designers to Murano’s hallowed workshops to create Venini pieces — among them Giò Ponti, Massimo Vignelli, Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala, Thomas Stearnsof the United States and Fulvio Bianconi.
Paolo Venini trained and practiced as a lawyer for a time, though his family had been involved with glassmaking for generations. After initially buying a share in a Venetian glass firm, he took over the company as his own in 1925, and under his direction it produced mainly classical Baroque designs. In 1932, he hired the young Carlo Scarpa— who would later distinguish himself as an architect — as his lead designer. Scarpa, working in concert with practiced glass artisans, completely modernized Venini, introducing simple, pared-down forms; bright primary colors; and bold patterns such as stripes, banding and abstract compositions that utilized cross sections of murrine (glass rods).
Paolo Venini’s best designs are thought to be his two-color Clessidre hourglasses, produced from 1957 onward, and the Fazzoletto (“handkerchief”) vase, designed with Bianconi in 1949. Bianconi’s masterworks are considered by many to be his Pezzato works — colorful vases with patterns that resemble those of a patchwork quilt. Other noteworthy and highly collectible vintage Venini works include Ponti’s dual-tone stoppered bottles (circa 1948); rare glass sculptures from the Doge series by Stearns, the first American to design for the firm; Vignelli’s striped lanterns of the 1960s; the Occhi vases with eyelet-shaped patterns by Tobia Scarpa (son of Carlo); and, with their almost zen purity, the Bolle (“bubbles”) bottles designed by Wirkkala in 1968.
With these works — and many others by some of the creative titans of the 20th and 21st century — Venini has produced one of the truly great bodies of work in modern design.
- Fulvio Bianconi for Venini Murano Pair of Figurines Arlecchino and ArlecchinaBy Fulvio Bianconi, VeniniLocated in Brussels, BEA rare pair of figurines designed by Fulvio Bianconi, manufactured by Venini Murano in Italy, circa 1955. In lattimo glass with polychrome decoratio...Category
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- Venini Murano Fulvio Bianconi Tiepolo Head FigurineBy Fulvio BianconiLocated in Brussels, BEThe Commedia dell’arte figurines are one of Fulvio Bianconi's most characteristic productions for Venini. Their creation can be dated around 1947-1948. The series, which originally consisted of twelve models, was exhibited at the 24th Venice Biennale in 1948. It is important to see this series of figurines as a cartoonish reinterpretation of the figurines that were very popular on the island of Murano in the 1930s. We recognize here the ironic touch of the work of Fulvio Bianconi who an illustrator was. Fulvio Bianconi uses here for each figurine a different costume and mask, the base is always made of lattimo glass decorated for polychrome glass costumes. Attitudes are also different for each character. We rarely find the heads of these figurines which were rare productions and out of catalog. Charming objects blown by masters outside the “regular” production. We present here the head of Giangurgolo, a figurine which bore the reference 2900 in the Venini catalog. The basic material of the lattimo glass head, the pink eyes...Category
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