Offered by Galerie Latham
Sculpture in transparent “corroso” (acid-etched) crystal, gray glass base, 1972. A “Livio Seguso” label under the base.
Born in Murano in 1930, from a great Venetian glass family (the Seguso factory has existed since 1397), Livio Seguso began in this field at a very young age, first as a student and then an assistant to the great master glassmaker Alfredo Barbini. He remained there until 1959, when he himself was appointed master at Salviati & Co. He then became the ideal interpreter of the creations of Luciano Gaspari. In 1969, Livio Seguso opened his own glassworks, becoming both an entrepreneur and a sculptor. He combines glass with marble, granite and wood and plays with elegant optical effects in his ever more abstract shaping of the glass. In 1981, at the Ca' Pesaro museum in Venice, a retrospective of his work took place. The exhibition was highly appreciated by both the public and the media, and his recognition as a glass artist then became international. In 1990, Livio Seguso sold his business, but continued to work as a glass sculptor. He also creates collages and acrylics on canvas. Since 2003, he has been invited several times for residencies at the Pilchuck Glass School, an international center for teaching and experimenting with glass art located on the Stanwood campus, in Washington State (USA). A retrospective exhibition “Livio Seguso. In principio era la goccia”, accompanied by an imposing publication, was organized from October 15, 2020 to April 12, 2021 at the Murano Glass Museum. The piece that I am offering you today is presented there, in a transparent version. Many works have been exhibited and integrated into major international museums, including the National History Museum in Taipei (Taiwan) in 2008 and the Venetian Glass Museum in Hakone, Japan, in 2014.
In the 1970s, Livio Seguso's plastic reflection gave an important place to an analysis of the human figure, then to germinal or biomorphic forms, which were succeeded in abstract series aimed at translating the fundamental aspects of life. Its ever more fluid and rounded forms achieve a form of sublimation of universal harmony and vitality. We can see the influence of the great masters of modern sculpture such as Arturo Martini, Henry Moore, Constantin Brancusi and Hans Arp. From 1972 (the year of his first personal participation in the Venice Biennale), the artist became more aware of the importance of the power of fire in the execution of his sculptures. He makes it a fundamental value in the creation of the work. He places the mass of hot glass in a reasoned balance between weight and heat and, through diversified movements of the iron bar which carries it, he makes the glass take the shape that he already imagined was inherent to the material itself, always pursuing his creative ideal. By using only heat as a technical means, these shapes then come to life with more autonomy and naturalness, taking better account of light in relation to their own shapes. The temptations of color definitively disappeared from his creative universe during the 70s, as did any reference to tradition. Its forms appear more and more essential in their transparency, driven by a desire for absolute purity and spatial dynamism, relying solely on the optical value of the material and the light it generates.
