Luciano Vistosi: Sculptor

‘Luciano Vistosi, sculptor’ is the first temporary exhibition to be held in the new spaces of the Conterie on the occasion of the re-opening of the Murano Glass Museum.
The exhibition showcases 30 only black and white crystal works of the great Italian sculptor Luciano Vistosi.
Rounded, sinuous sculptures devoid of sharp angles; shapes that appeal for the changing plays of light and also for their tactile qualities; works made by modelling the blown glass with rapid, firm movements, balancing the blown glass while gravity draws it gradually down, and giving form to the creative idea in three minutes at the most; or sculptures made by chiselling and smoothing the glass as though it were marble. They are creations that astonish for their poetry and innovation; they are moving sculptures.

In the glass manufactory of his father, Luciano Vistosi (Murano 1931 – 2010) learned to pull and raise the incandescent mass and transform it into an eagle, a dove, a farming girl, a female nude or nightmares.
Following his father’s death in 1952, Vistosi founded the new Vetreria Vistosi with his uncle Oreste and brother Gino with the aim of making products linked to the latest developments in design. He also involved some leading firms, such as Aulenti, Sottsass, Magistretti, Zanuso, and Peduzzi. He concentrated above all on lighting, producing new products, including some famous series of wall sconces.
In his artistic development as “sculptor”, Vistosi tested various techniques other than blown glass. Some works are sculpted from enormous blocks of rough glass in line with the “art of removal” typical of sculpting marble. These blocks were obtained using industrial glass, as in the case of his famous project for the Accademia Bridge. This was in the mid-1980s. At that same time, the artist was making houses and skyscrapers of transparent glass measuring up to a meter high. Architectural sculptures boasting a strong appeal thanks to their geometric perfection and underlying desire to open the way to a more livable city, they were shown with sea-green crystal works in the artist’s workshop at Murano, just a short distance from the Glass Museum.
Some of Italy’s leading photographers, including Ugo Mulas, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Paolo Monti and Franco Fontana have, through their cameras, interpreted the innovative nature of Luciano Vistosi’s work: a dialogue between sculpture and photography that was important for the artist, as he himself used cameras to seek out lines, forms, shapes.