Tapio Wirkkala at Venini

Among the most important protagonists of Finnish art glassmaking, Tapio Wirkkala (1915–1985) came to Murano in 1965.He had been invited to work with the Venini glassworks by its young director, the architect Ludovico de Santillana, who considered Nordic design to be of a great interest with regard to the relaunching of production internationally, in line with the activities of his father-in-law, Paolo Venini, whom he had succeeded.

Active with the Karhula Iittala firm from 1947, Wirkkala had established himself in particular with his production in thick crystal with characteristic organic shapes that moreover had been widely successful at the Triennale of Milan in 1951 and 1954.

Especially interested in Venetian glass and its working techniques which allowed for possibilities of expression quite different to those of Nordic crystal, Wirkkala approached his Murano experience enthusiastically, being able also to count on the excellent ability of the master glassmakers with whom he established an extraordinary rapport.

When Tapio Wirkkala designed his first objects for Venini in the mid-1960s, he was already a figure of worldwide fame, with prominent projects in the various design sectors.

This work aims at documenting the entire art-glass endeavour of Tapio Wirkkala at the Venini glassworks, fruit of the cross-pollination between apparently antithetical realities, an opus that becoming grafted into the tradition of the glassworks was able to modernise its production with a wide impact also on contemporary Murano glassmaking.