Carlo Scarpa

CARLO SCARPA (Venice, 1906 - Japan, 1978) for VENINI.
Floor lamp, ca. 1930s.
Murano glass.
Reproduced in the Blu Catalogue of Venini, n. 502.
It shows light wear commensurate with use and age. Partially restored. Two small cracks near the switch and one on the base.
Electrical components rewired and/or new. All cables have been replaced.
Measurements: 180 x 40 x 40 cm.

This exquisite lamp designed by Carlo Scarpa for Venini is distinguished by its handcrafted character and structural elegance. Created for Venini, one of Italy's most prestigious glass manufacturers, this floor lamp combines art, innovation and functionality. The shaft and base are made of Murano glass, creating a bold combination of transparency, texture and metallic sparkles. The helical carving gives the piece an ascending quality that refracts the light. The brass rings provide a restrained rhythm that moderates the fluidity of the crystal. Conceived in the 1930s, it shows echoes of Art Deco, as well as anticipating the emerging modernist movement.

Carlo Scarpa studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, where he graduated in 1926. A prolific designer with a passion for glass as a material, in the late 1920s he designed his first pieces of furniture, beginning to attend the artistic and intellectual circles of Venice, where he met and interacted with important designers such as Giuseppe Ungaretti, Carlo Carra, Lionello Venturi, Diego Valeri and Giacomo Noventa. From 1933 he began working with the glass factory of Paolo Venini, a collaboration that lasted until 1947. His first exhibition took place at the Venice Biennale in 1932 and two years later at the Milan Triennale. Despite his wide-ranging and visionary talent, Scarpa designed relatively few furniture designs, which were delivered mainly for site-specific installations for private clients. In architecture, his most prominent project of the pre-World War II years is the restoration of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Venice. After the war, he would be commissioned to undertake many other restoration works, both for exteriors and interiors, and for the supervision and preparation of exhibitions; in his work, Scarpa often reveals himself to be influenced by Art Nouveau and by masters such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Josef Hoffmann. Scarpa focuses his architecture on the passage of time and the continuous change of objects and materials. Important projects in his career include the Galleria Canova in Possagno (Treviso) between 1955 and 1957; the Olivetti showroom in Piazza S. Marco, Venice (1957-1958); and Banca Popolare di Verona, on which Scarpa began work in 1973, to be completed after his death by Arrigo Rudi.