After Paolo Venini’s death in 1959, his son-in-law, Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, took the company in a new direction. Responding to the tone of the times, Santillana began to invite artists from around the world to participate in a more open, creative atmosphere. A diverse group of designers contributed, and throughout the 1960s and beyond, Venini maintained and enhanced its reputation as Murano’s most innovative and forward-thinking company.
Gio Ponti
ARTIST | ARCHITECT | DESIGNER
WRITER | PUBLISHER
Designer, Venini 1946–1948
Ludovico Diaz de Santillana
ARCHITECT | DESIGNER
ENTREPRENEUR
Director, Venini 1959–1985
Tobia Scarpa
ARCHITECT | DESIGNER
Designer, Venini 1959–1962
Thomas Stearns
ARTIST | DESIGNER
Designer, Venini 1960–1962
Tapio Wirkkala
DESIGNER | SCULPTOR
Designer, Venini 1960s
Toni Zuccheri 1937–2008
Born in 1936 in San Vito al Taglimento, Toni Zuccheri was the son of renowned Italian metaphysical painter Luigi Zuccheri whose work was focused predominantly on the depiction of fantastic animals and birds. From an early age Toni demonstrated an innate capacity for drawing and possessed a great sensitivity toward nature and animals, birds in particular.
A few years after moving to Venice with his family in 1945, he enrolled in the Academy of Architecture and studied under Franco Albini, Ignazio Gardella, Carlo Scarpa and others. In the early 1960s he began to study and work at Venini where, in collaboration with Gio Ponti, he engaged in intensive experimentation with glass; the culmination was the development of Vetro Grosso, a new type of glass created from dense vitreous pastes combined with murrine, raw pigment, shards of Filigrana canes and fine wire mesh.
Auction Results Toni Zuccheri
