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Tomaso Buzzi at Venini

On show in Venice until January the glass works designed by the Italian architect – as part of the series “Le Stanze del Vetro”, a project by Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Pentagram Stiftung.

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  • 22 September 2014
  • Venice

The Lombard architect Tomaso Buzzi was a leading exponent of the so-called Novecento Milanese.

A friend and collaborator of Gio Ponti, he was also a member of the group called Il Labirinto, together with architects and entrepreneurs like Ponti, Michele Marelli and Paolo Venini. And it was with Ponti that Tomaso Buzzi became one of the most important creators of Italian taste in the 1930s, setting the benchmark for the next few years.

Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Top: large vases in glass consisting of different coloured layers with applied gold leaf, 1932-33. Above: drawing

An erudite architect, experimental industrial designer and refined interior designer, as well as being a collaborator with the magazine Domus, his services were sought by some of the most important upper-class Italian families: the Volpi, Cini, and Visconti, to mention but a few.
The buildings he worked on include the Villa Necchi Campiglio, Milan, recently restored by the Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI), Palladio’s Villa Maser, Treviso, the Palazzo Cini at San Vio, the Palazzo Papadopoli and the Palazzo Labia (all in Venice).

From 1932 to 1933 Buzzi began to collaborate very actively with the Venini glassworks and was to continue to do so, albeit more sporadically, over the following few years. Buzzi’s creative contribution consisted in an experimental approach to form and materials. His extensive studies on lightning initiated the development of new forms in this traditional sector of Murano glassmaking. Curated by Marino Barovier, Tomaso Buzzi at Venini reconstructs this brief but fecund collaboration, documented not only through a selection of glass objects and original drawings from the Venini Archive but also unpublished designs held at Scarzuola (Montegabbione), the “theatre-city”, which Buzzi began to construct in the late 1960s.

Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Ovoid vase in turquoise cased glass with small flared foot and mouth in black glass. Fruit bowl in turquoise cased glass with truncated cone-shaped foot in black glass, 1932
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Small jars with heart-shaped mouth in glass consisting of different coloured layers, body of oval section and low truncated cone-shaped foot, 1932-33
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Boccia dei cavallini marini (Vase of the Sea-Horses) in alga glass with applied gold leaf. Vase in alba glass consisting of different coloured layers with applied gold leaf, 1932-33
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Cockerels and chickens in filigrana glass with reticello (net-like) pattern and glass finishing, 1933
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Bowl in laguna glass consisting of different coloured layers with applied gold leaf, 1932-33
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Bowl with goat in tramonto glass consisting of different coloured layers with applied gold leaf, 1932-33
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. ‘Coppa con il nodo’ in laguna glass consisting of different coloured layers with applied gold leaf, 1932
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Ducks and goose in lattimo glass with applied tarnished silver leaf, 1933
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Vase in black glass with wavy ‘collar’ in reticello (net-like) pattern with lattimo filigrana glass, 1933
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Vase in lattimo and straw-colour cased glass with applied gold leaf and small truncated cone-shaped foot. Large vase in lattimo and straw-colour cased glass with applied gold leaf, truncated cone-shaped foot, ovoid body and ‘everted’ rim, 1932-33
Tomaso Buzzi at Venini. Green cased glass bowl consisting of different coloured layers with applied silver leaf. Green cased glass bowl consisting of different coloured layers with applied silver leaf, 1932-33
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