Patricia Urquiola
Jean Cocteau
Max Ernst
Jean Arp
Jean Lurcat
Pablo Picasso
Egidio Costantini
Bettina Tschumi
The handsomest of early contemporary glass artworks. The title is the name that Jean Cocteau gave to an exceptional set of 36 works bearing such prestigious signatures as Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Jean Lurcat, and Pablo Picasso - all of whom teamed up, during the '60s, with the master glassmaker Egidio Costantini, in Murano.
As a complement
All’Ambic, the series of vases by Patricia Urquiola, the mudac presents a significant selection
of emblematic works from its Collection.
La Fucina degli angeli
(The Furnace of the Angels) is the name that, at
the time, Jean Cocteau gave to an exceptional set of 36 works bearing such prestigious signatures as Max Ernst,
Jean Arp, Jean Lurçat, Jean Cocteau and Pablo Picasso – all of whom teamed up, during the ‘60s, with the master
glassmaker Egidio Costantini, in Murano. This experience, launched in order to bring artists of the time into contact
with a material and its unknown expressive possibilities, represents a decisive and historic moment in what is such
a recent discipline as glass art, and on the scale of art history in general. First collected by Peggy Guggenheim
and later acquired by several of the mudac collection’s patrons, these works form the cornerstone of our holdings,
currently strong of about 540 artworks and objects.
Some of these sculptures have not been shown to the public for a long time –
Giamaica
by Picasso or
Seme della
vita
by Luciano dall’Acqua for instance – as they have recently been restored. Others, such as Chagall’s
Colombe
and Cocteau’s
Maternità, are presented to the public for the first time.
The artworks from the
Fucina degli Angeli, like Patricia Urquiola’s
All’Ambic
series, demonstrate that Venice remains the center of a age-long tradition dating back to the 9th
century while allowing unprecedented and fertile
encounters and collaborations between artists and the unique potential for transformation of glass.
Image: Max Ernst, Re (le roi) et Regina (la reine) , 1963, glass
Press contact:
Danaé Panchaud, public relations +41 21 315 25 27, danae.panchaud@lausanne.ch
Opening Thursday 28 February at 5pm: guided tour of the exhibition by Bettina Tschumi, curator
in charge of the contemporary glass collection
Musee de design et d'arts appliques contemporains - mudac
PL. Cathédrale 6 CH-1005 Lausanne
Hours:
July-August: Monday-Sunday 11.00 - 18.00
September-October: Tuesday-Sunday 11.00 - 18.00
Open on every bank holiday