Tapio Wirkkala is one of the main architects of the success and fame of the Finnish school around the world. When the designer and artist began his collaboration with Venini in the mid-1960s, he was already a leading figure in various fields: from jewellery design to furniture for mass production, from sculptures to designs for various media. Wirkkala has been able to combine his experience in the Nordic glass world with the tradition of Murano, creating unique objects and at the same time deeply influencing the Murano glassmaking world. Tapio Wirkkala has enhanced the "Incalmo" technique, which he often combined with "Mezzafiligrana" and "Murrine", thanks to the skill of the glass masters and the rich colour palette.

The experiments of the master Toni Zuccheri – who is called for the first time by Venini to give shape to a glass bestiary, presented at the 1964 Biennale – are due to a family tradition: his father, Luigi Zuccheri, was in fact a well-known animal painter. These works are made in polychrome glass using precious techniques, such as "murrine". In the 1960s he also collaborated with Gio Ponti, with whom he designed an innovative system of stained glass windows, the "Vetrate Grosse". He later expanded his glass production with new colours and subjects, participating in numerous exhibitions all over the world.

The two masters of 20th-century glassmaking will meet in Venice. On 21 November 2021, the exhibitions "Tapio Wirkkala at Venini" and "Toni Zuccheri at Venini", curated by Marino Barovier, will open to the public at LE STANZE DEL VETRO.

We will find over 200 works in glass that tell the story of the unique collaboration between the artists and the great masters of Murano who worked at Venini. The two exhibitions will be accompanied by two monographic publications, edited by Marino Barovier and Carla Sonego. The catalogues reconstruct the work of Wirkkala and Zuccheri at Venini through careful archive research, using both the resources made available by the glassworks and those of the heirs.

LE STANZE DEL VETRO is a joint initiative of the Giorgio Cini Foundation and the Pentagram Foundation to promote the study and appreciation of 20th-century and contemporary glass art.

Cover image: Piatti di Tapio, Tapio Wirkkala for Venini, 1967. © TAPIO WIRKKALA, by SIAE 2021