Lucia Tro Santafe
International Senior Specialist
Lot 67AR
Pablo Picasso(Spanish, 1881-1973)Flamengo
Amended
13 June 2019, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £11,312.50 inc. premium
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Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973)
Flamengo
Blown Murano glass, with iridescent surface, 1963, incised E. Costantini P. Picasso F.A. Venezia 1963 underneath, executed in an edition of seven unique variants by Egidio Costantini, Venice, generally in very good condition
Height 492mm. (19 3/8in.)
Blown Murano glass, with iridescent surface, 1963, incised E. Costantini P. Picasso F.A. Venezia 1963 underneath, executed in an edition of seven unique variants by Egidio Costantini, Venice, generally in very good condition
Height 492mm. (19 3/8in.)
Footnotes
It is during a visit to Paris in 1954 that the Venetian master glass-maker Egidio Costantini (1912-2007) met Pablo Picasso. Costantini was there to promote a project to the Parisian art scene that he had been developing with glassblowers and local artists in Venice for some years: namely to elevate the craft of glass blowing to an art form through collaboration with contemporary artists. To this aim he had founded the Centro Studio Pittori nell'Arte del Vetro di Murano in 1950, later renamed the Fucina degli Angeli (The Foundry of Angels) by Jean Cocteau, with whom he also collaborated. Artists showed strong interest, and the likes of Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Lucio Fontana, Alexander Calder and Oskar Kokoschka among others went on to work with Costantini.
The drive and passion with which Picasso would embark on new projects in completely new media is well known, and no doubt he was also immediately seduced by the idea of working with glass. Having experienced the modelling and sculptural properties of ceramics, he was perfectly comfortable to develop a design into a three-dimensional object, and we see recurring themes of his oeuvre in the glass pieces he created with Costantini. The two of them became close collaborators and friends over the years and would work together on each piece, from beginning to completion.
Peggy Guggenheim proved a great supporter of the project and owned numerous artists's works by Funcina degli Angeli, exhibiting them in her museum, the Pallazzo del Leoni in Venice. Her enthusiasm was crucial and lead to the 1965 exhibition, Sculptures in Glass, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York where glass works by Jean Arp, Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso were exhibited.
Saleroom notices
Please note that the artist of this work is Egidio Costantini (Italian, 1912-2007) and not Pablo Picasso.