contessanally: March 2019

Le Stanze del Vetro

Maurice Marinot. The Glass, 1911-1934

On the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Le Stanze del Vetro, presents the exhibition Maurice Marinot. The Glass, 1911-1934, until July 28, curated by Jean-Luc Olivie, of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, and Cristina Beltrami. It is the first international tribute celebrating Maurice Marinot (1882-1960), a great glass artist, who revolutionized glassmaking techniques and taste. Marinot was a tireless experimenter, whose glass inventions were emulated for decades, he paved the way to contemporary glassmaking, thanks to his experimentation with forms and techniques. The exhibition features 220 works in glass on loan from prestigious museums, as well as many preparatory drawings, showing the extraordinary ground-breaking production of the glass artist, from the early enamel works to the hand-blown pieces that Marinot created and modeled in person thanks to his remarkable skills and creativity.

https://lestanzedelvetro.org/en/

photograph and copyright manfredi bellati

“Marinot thus came to invent a new aesthetic of thick, heavy, “fleshy” glass based on the organic plasticity of the material that two millennia of glassblowing had not previously revealed.”

Jean-Luc Olivie

The curators, Jean-Luc Olivie, of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs and Cristina Beltrami with Marino Barovier, center

“I started by decorating enamel glassware, and I learned how to do this with great passion.”

Maurice Marinot

Installation View – Enamels 1911-1922

Sketches and variations for vases for Masion Cubiste – c. 1912-13

David Landau

photograph and copyright manfredi bellati

“… I draw in broad strokes with a brush loaded with any material, then I cover each piece sparing the signs I had in mind. The first marks are thus the outline of what will eventually be etched.”

Marinot to G. Janneau – 1925

Vase – Double Masque – 1928

Rosa Barovier Mentasti and Michela Cattai

Massimo Micheluzzi, Silvia Dainese and Mara Rumiz

“The glassmaker achieves his final result only by continuous attention and a precise interaction and cooperation with the slightest movements in the life of hot glass.”

M. Marinot – 1920

Flask – Waterfall – 1928

Flask – Stagnant Water – 1928

Flat Flask – 1928

Flat Flask – 1932

“This matter is born in a struggle, in fire, in smoke, and either defends itself or obeys in turn when I contrain it, while always respecting its nature”

Maurice Marinot

Installation View - 1923-25

Square Bowl – 1928

Sandro Favaretto Rubelli

Paolo Diaz de Santillana, Laura de Santillana and Jean Blanchaert

Margherita Alvera and Giovanna Forlanelli Rovati

Fernando Mazzoccha, Marco Arosio and Mariella Motterlini

photograph and copyright manfredi bellati

“The last years of production were characterized by Marinot’s total control over the material—which almost makes it ‘sing’.”

Leon Rosenthal – 1927

Installation View

Round Flask – 1933

Vase – 1931

Flat Flask – 1933

Flat Flask – 1924

Alberto and Barbara Berlingieri

Luca De Michelis

Alba Di Lieto and Giorgio Vigna

Chris Mason and Daniela Chiara

Projects and Research

Sketches for acid-etched vases - 1925-30

Sketches for vases with hot-shaped ribbon inclusion – c.1920-35

Giorgio Mastinu and Martin Bethenod

Manfredi della Gherardesca, Bianca and Gilberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga

“Marinot’s manifest interest in technique and his constant experimentation with an innovative approach to glassmaking took on theoretical form … when he publicly distanced himself from ‘the proud feats and juggling tricks of the Venetians’.”

Cristina Beltrami

Flat Flask – 1929

Square Bowl with Base – 1933