Fragile Murano Exhibition, Paris
Fragile Murano
Musee Maillol, Paris
27 March – 27 July 2013
59-61 Rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris
Métro: Rue du Bac
T.0142225958
www.museemaillol.com
Murano: while the name of this charming Venetian island immediately evokes the art of glass-making, the glut of tourist produce filling the souvenir shops means that it is easy to forget the precious skills nurtured in the workshops here and the quality and splendour of the objects produced over the centuries. For the first time in France, an exhibition will chronicle the extraordinary adventure of glass in Murano, retracing seven centuries of intense creativity, from the mid-15th century to the present day. It will feature over two hundred pieces, many never or only rarely exhibited, obtained from public institutions or jealously guarded private collections.
The exhibition will follow the history of the great glassworks with a selection of the finest objects made for the great families and European courts of the Renaissance – the Estes, Gonzagas and Medici –, extravagant Baroque creations and pieces from the 18th century, through to the Art Deco of the 1920s and the modernism of the 1950s, all the way to contemporary works by the Studio Glass movement, which takes glass as its sole mode of expression.
A special section focuses on the international artists who have come to Murano since the 1950s to work with the master glassmakers and experiment with glass as a privileged creative material. After Arp, César and Fontana in decades past, this tradition is now even stronger than ever: witness the “Glasstress” exhibition when, in parallel to the last two Venice Biennales, new creations by Hatoum, Othoniel, Pérez, the Recycle Group, Schütte, Shen Yuan and Wilson have been brought together at the Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti.
Javier Perez, Carrona, 2011
Veronese Vases by Vittorio Zecchin and others
Jan Fabre, Shitting Doves of Peace and Flying Rats, 2011
