On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
This series was created by Alain Chamot (1971-2020).
randy khan
Back to Murano, and more glass. I told you it was a glass trip.
This and the next photo are from the studio of Lucio Bubacco. He’s another flameworker, one of the best in the world. This is a chandelier – think about how much work there is to produce something this big with this much detail.
While we were in the studio, he did a little demonstration and made this hand. The hand is about ¾ of an inch tall.
This is work by Livio Seguso. He is from one of the great glass families in Murano, but he left the family business to make his own work. It’s pretty much all clear like this and the glass parts of this installation are about 18” wide. It’s big, heavy work.
There are two glass museums in Venice. One is in Murano, and is quite old. It was intended as a resource for glass makers so they could see what their spiritual (and often literal) ancestors had done. In recent years, it’s started to show more contemporary work, too, but the old purpose still persists. This is an antique glass chandelier in that museum. (By the way, the room where they had a lot of the contemporary glass was kind of shocking for a museum – the pieces are out on a big flat surface, with nothing to prevent you from reaching out and touching them; in fact, the way the room is set up, you ended up just inches from the work you were looking at. It was fantastic in a way, but kind of scary.)
While Murano is a place of great tradition, it also houses a place called Berengo Studio, which promotes the use of glass in contemporary art, and puts on a show called Glasstress at the same time as the Biennale. The show usually combines some work by people who normally work in glass with work by people who don’t, like Ai Wei Wei When we visited, Glasstress was on, and at two venues, one in Murano and one on the main island. This is from the Murano part of the show. This piece is called Rag Chapel, by Olga Trevas, a Russian artist. Each of the glass jars is stuffed with fabric. It’s sort of a stained glass effect, but not.
This and the next photo are works by Lino Tagliapietra, who is thought of as the greatest contemporary glass artist by many people. These photos were taken in a gallery he has at his house (although we didn’t go into the house). He was trained in a traditional Muranese glass factory and then went on to work as an independent artist. He actually does most of his glassblowing in the U.S. these days.
More Lino. (Everybody in the glass world calls him Lino. It’s kind of like Cher.)
Okay, enough glass. Here’s a little slice of a Venice neighborhood, with a lovely little bridge. They really are everywhere, as are the little boats people use to get around.
Lapassionara
Lovely. I am a fan of those heavy works. These photos are great. Thanks.
West of the Rockies
Gorgeous.
But think of the effort and apprehension involved in cleaning that stuff.
Snarki, child of Loki
“think about how much work there is to produce something this big with this much detail.”
Think about what it would take to pack in your luggage.
Auntie Anne
Those chandeliers! Just lovely. And that work by Livio Segusa speaks to me somehow – I keep going back to look at it more. The Lino is great, but the Livio Segusa, well, I just want to see it from every angle.
Thank you for this series.
randy khan
@Snarki, child of Loki:
LOL. The artist packs and ships, thank goodness.
randy khan
@West of the Rockies:
We don’t really go for the delicate stuff, but the answer is canned air, the same stuff you use to clean computer keyboards.
randy khan
@Auntie Anne:
We really loved Segusa’s work, too.
Auntie Anne
@randy khan: so, I have to ask – did you bring some home? I would not have been able to resist.
CaseyL
Oh, my gosh, that lampwork! I would have swooned to see that demo. The hand all by itself is amazing, but that tiny little flower held between the fingers!!??
The more ornate and complicated the piece, the more I wonder how they joined it all without something going blooey from heat shock.
(And, can you imagine being the servant in charge of cleaning those rococo chandeliers in the days before there was such a thing as “canned air”? Like, a single-feather duster?)
SkyBluePink
Your pictures have captured the joyous artistry of the glass work.
Thank you!
Origuy
I went to the Tacoma Museum of Glass a few years ago and they had a very impressive exhibit; I’ve been trying to remember the name of the artist since this series of posts. I’m pretty sure now it was Lino Tagliapietra. Wonderful work.
randy khan
@Auntie Anne:
Some small things. We didn’t have the budget for something big at the time.
Dan B
Lino was the Murano artist who came to Seattle! His name was on the tip of my tongue.
And there was a glass artist in Seattle who had a feel like Livio’s but did totemic animals and Coast Tribal influenced work – William Moore, I believe. His work seemed far superior to Chihuly because it had subtle references to spirituality and timeless culture, not just showmanship and dazzle. It’s wonderful to see work by artists in Murano that has echoes in Seattle – cross cultural inspiration.
I had clients that have a very early Chihuly that looks like Lino’s cylinders but is much more restrained and not as full of life. There are other pieces that seem to show Lino’s strong influence.
I’m not part of Seattle’s art scene but know quite a few people who are. Lino is revered.
randy khan
@Dan B:
I’m betting it’s William Morris.
The early Chihuly work predates Lino’s cylinders. When Chihuly was doing the cylinders, Lino was still doing more traditional things.
Rand Careaga
The chandelier is impressive as a technical accomplishment, but it runs violently counter to my personal tastes in home decor. YMMV.
RaflW
I’ve had the ridiculously good fortune to have visited Venice twice. First in 2012, and then again in 2014. We visited Murano on the first trip, and Burano and the Lido on the second. We stayed in the same small hotel in Cannaregio both times. Our not terribly expensive room had what to my untrained eye looked like a Murano glass chandelier. I suppose that isn’t actually all that surprising, I’m sure the building was quite old!
I found Venice to be delightful both times. First trip was in mid-September, the other early August. The crowds weren’t terrible the second time, but it helped that we’d already seen a number of the high-tourism spots the first trip. We did have a bit of acqua alta the second time, but not too bad.
The climate risks to Venice just depress the shit out of me, though.
Barbara
@Snarki, child of Loki: Think about what it would cost to ship home.
Love those orange pieces by Lino.
Dan B
@randy khan: Yep, William Morris. They’re amazing and the prices show it. I thought he had retired. Doesn’t look like it, not that I could afford any
Interesting that the Chihuly cylinders predate Lino. I thought that Lino’s work was traditional when he arrived in Seattle. Time to research some Pilchuck history
Thanks for posting these photos. It’s brought up memories of the blossoming of glass in Seattle that Lino sparked. I remember the excitement of seeing a Chihuly nested shells for the first time and some glass exhibitions that looked like they would dazzle NYC art critics.
Amir Khalid
@Barbara:
Think about the chances of it arriving in more than one piece.
Pharniel
Thanks for reminding me of happier times.
Murano was cool, and the photos here are great captures of how amazing the artisans are.
randy khan
@Amir Khalid:
Glass artists and dealers are really good at packing. The only time we’ve ever had glass arrive broken was a light fixture from a commercial manufacturer. All the things shipped by artists and dealers have been fine (and occasionally over-protected, not that we are complaining about that).
randy khan
@Dan B:
Morris has retired, but he seems to still have a fair amount of inventory.
ET
I went to a wedding in Venice in 2002 and there really is a great picture around every corner. I actually really liked Burano – known for its lace – as well. Everything so colorful.
J R in WV
For a while I collected minerals, specimens mined all over the world, packed and shipped to Tucson AZ for the annual (not THIS year, of course!) Rock, Gem, Mineral show. Some are quite sturdy (think a foot quartz crystal), some are as delicate as a glass flower. Here’s an example from a dealer in AZ — more delicate — I never bought any of these, too fragile to live with cats!
They glue them to the bottom of a container with tack and bury them in powdered detergent, then pack that container in a bigger box filled with little air bags, or foam peanuts; there are other techniques for shipping unbelievably valuable delicate fragile things… so shipping blown glass isn’t impossible, you just need to know the tricks.
These photos of Venice and the glass art there are amazing. When we visited Italy we hit Florence and Tuscany. The Etruscans did glass art, displayed in small rural town museums, at least that’s where we saw it. And at the Metropolitan Art Museum in NYC as well.
Don’t think we will ever make it to Venice at this point, not enough years of active life left to us to complete the bucket list, so reading about it, seeing photos will be how we experience it.
Thanks for contributing to that effort for us. Great photo set !! I love the variety of Balloon Juice, you never know what you will learn and experience tomorrow, later this aftenoon. Thanks everyone!
cope
Those are amazing pictures of amazing art, thanks.
Miss Bianca
Like, wow.
It’s been so many years since I visited Venice that I honestly can’t remember whether my bf and I visited Murano or not. He was a budding artists at the time, so I have a feeling that we may have done…I’ll have to dig out my old photo cache from that trip (which I recently found) and see!
Thank you for the photo tour!
Steve from Mendocino
Love that last shot. Wish I’d gotten something that good during my visit.
randy khan
@Steve from Mendocino:
High praise! Thank you.
way2blue
I’m a sucker for glass. Not art glass per se, rather ‘craft’ glass, meaning mostly tumblers I use as water glasses. We took a ferry from Venice to Murano when we were there in 2019, and visited the glass museum. Amazing. I especially liked the exhibit of ancient, ancient glass with the patina’d surfaces. I did ditch my husband at one point, and duck into a shop to buy what is my favorite glass tumbler… From your photos I see that we need to return & spend more time poking around.