OBJECT: SOMMERSO GLASS
Venice, that magical archipelago of palaces, churches and canals, and the famed glass blowing island of Murano where the aqueous beauty of the watery world of Venetian life is transformed into glass art works by master glass blowers, continuously operating since late 13th century.
Sommerso– Italian for submerged- is a glassblowing technique where many different coloured layers of glass are encased in a single object. The artist repeatedly immerses the piece in the molten layers of the chosen colours, and finally a thick clear layer to result in an intensely magnified object of contradictions; solidity yet lightness, a fusion of intense hues and light, captured and submerged layers of pure colour and refracted clarity.
Developed in the 1950s by Antonio da Ros and made popular later by Flavio Poli, the artistic director for Seguso Vetri d’Arte; Paolo Venini; and the Mandruzzato family, the sommerso technique continued to grow in popularity as da Ros moved to Ars Cenedese and later won exhibition prizes for his submerged glass pieces.
Today, this technique is continued through the never-ending research and work of expert glass masters such as Oball and Oggetti, the Onesto family, Cenedese, Venini and Barovier and Toso. Object presents a selection of examples of sommerso by many of these highly collectable artists.
