Author Description

A spirited protagonist of the Milan “neoclassicist” movement, a friend and associate of Gio Ponti, and a partner of Il Labirinto – together with Ponti and Paolo Venini among others- between 1932 and 1933 Tomaso Buzzi established a fruitful partnership with the Murano glassworks. He would occasionally return there in later years. 0This volume reconstructs the architect’s entire glass production, which until today had been rather incomplete; only a few pieces were well-known. Thanks to careful documentary research, we now know the context in which he worked and we could highlight this unique creative contribution to the pieces he made and to the techniques used to produce them. Buzzi introduced objects that were often inspired by ancient art and he designed a type of opaque glass with different coloured layers and a gold leaf finish, which according to the tone gave rise to the laguna, alba, alga and tramonto glass. The catalogue offers a collection of over three hundred models that range from vases to light fittings produced by the glassworks, but it also includes Buzzi’s projects for specific buyers and the designs that were never implemented. The architect’s work is documented by a rich array of historic photos and unpublished designs from the Venini historic archive, and by sketches, also never published, preserved in the Buzzi archive at the Scarzuola (Montegabbione), that tell the story of a great passion.00Exhibition: Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy (14.09.2014 - 11.01.2015).