Days left to visit Venice Finnish glass exhibition

ROME- Over 300 works from the Bischofberger Collection celebrate the beauty of artistic glass in an exhibition featuring masterpieces by the most important Finnish designers of the 20th century.

The exhibition “Glass from Finland in the Bischofberger Collection”, organised by Kaisa Koivisto, curator at The Finnish Glass Museum, Riihimäki, and Pekka Korvenmaa, professor at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture (Finland), is open to the public on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice until August 2.

This important exhibition features the best of Finnish and international design thanks to the unprecedented loan of over 300 glass works from the Bischofberger private collection. The beauty of artistic glass features masterpieces by the foremost 20th century Finnish designers: Aino and Alvar Aalto, Arttu Brummer, Kaj Franck, Göran Hongell, Gunnel Nyman, Timo Sarpaneva, Oiva Toikka and Tapio Wirkkala.

The exhibition offers the public a unique opportunity to view some very rare objects, often unique or early production pieces, which Christina and Bruno Bischofberger have collected with a passion and insight over the past forty years.

In the early Twenties, Finland used design in an attempt to establish its autonomy and its cultural sovereignty. Some of the country’s greatest designers began to use glass to create works of art that blended tradition and experimentation.

After 1932 Finnish glass became known worldwide and served to reveal the skills and creative talent of those who would soon be regarded as the visionary geniuses of Scandinavian design – i.e. Arttu Brummer, Gunnel Nyman, Göran Hongell and wife and husband Aino and Alvar Aalto.

In the early Fifties, through the new spirit of optimism and the international influence, designers and artists built up the foundations of what will become known as “the golden age" of Finnish glass.
In order to meet the functional and personal demands of its users, designers started producing objects and works of art that were both aesthetically sophisticated and mainly referred to nature by the free use of organic shapes and curves.

Along with internationally acclaimed designers such as Alvar Aalto, other artists became the new stars of Scandinavian design, such as Kaj Franck, Gunnel Nyman, and Tapio Wirkkala, who is considered to be the symbol of the international success of post-war Finnish design.

During the Sixties and Seventies, color and energy became the main focus of Finnish design; glass works became colorful and were given elaborate shapes. Oiva Toikka designed glass birds, which became Iittala’s iconic brand. Through his irreverent approach to the glass medium and tradition, Toikka represented the connection between "the golden era" of the fabulous Fifties and a more contemporary design.

This rich collection, curated by Kaisa Koivisto and Pekka Korvenmaa for LE STANZE DEL VETRO brings to the public the greatest examples of a century-long glass production, in all its variety: shapes and objects that have etched themselves into the history of the Scandinavian as well as of the international design. To quote the motto of Iittala: “We don’t just create beautiful objects. We believe in timeless design that will never be thrown away.”