Venini, Paolo

Paolo Venini, (born 1895—died July 1959, Venice, Italy), Italian glassmaker and designer and manufacturer of glassware, whose works are outstanding for their combination of traditional technique and modern form. His glass factory in Murano contributed to a revival of art-glass manufacture in the 1930s and ’40s and employed some of the finest designers of the period, among them Gio Ponti and Tyra Lundgren.

Although Venini was educated to be a lawyer, his family had been in the glassmaking business in Italy since the 18th century. In 1921, after practicing law in Milan for a short time, he bought a partnership in a Murano glass firm, establishing his own Venini and Company four years later. From the beginning Venini’s workshop turned out beautiful tableware that was years ahead of the work of other contemporary designers. His own designs were strikingly simple, their purity of outline set off against unusual combinations of colours worked into the glass in bold, stripe-like threads, lattices, grids, and, sometimes, the traditional Venetian millefiore manner. His boldly striped translucent glass lampshades won critical acclaim. His pieces are displayed in museums and considered prime examples of modern glass artistry.