Lino Tagliapietra
Lino Tagliapietra’s career is defined by a dedication to workmanship, innovation, and collaboration. Born in 1934 on the renowned glass-blowing island of Murano, Italy, Tagliapietra began his apprenticeship at age 11 with Muranese master Archimede Seguso and himself achieved the status of Maestro Vetraio by the age of 21. For over forty-two years, he worked in various for-profit Murano factories including Vetreria Galliano Ferro, Venini & Co., and finally as the Artistic and Technical Director of Effetre International from 1976-1989. He has worked as an independent artist since 1989, exhibiting in museums across the globe, receiving countless honors, openly sharing his far-reaching knowledge of the medium and his skill as one of its finest practitioners, and helping to create a new renaissance in studio glassmaking. As James Yood, adjunct professor of art history at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and regular contributor to GLASS magazine wrote, “there are probably no two words more respected and honored in the history of modern sculpture in glass than ‘Lino Tagliapietra’; he is the living bridge, the crucial link between the august history of Venetian glass and the ceaseless wonders of what today we call the modern Studio Glass Movement.”
Of the influences on his work, one of the most profound was his participation in La Scuola Internazionale del Vetro symposia, held in Murano in the 1970s, which brought the finest Muranese masters together with artists from other disciplines around the world. Also impactful was his collaboration with the Dutch glass designer A.D. Copier. Since his first United States visit in 1979 at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, WA at the invitation of Benjamin Moore, teaching and collaboration have defined the artist and served as a source of inspiration for his own work. He has led workshops and taught in glass programs worldwide including at: the Haystack School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME; the Pilchuck Glass School, Stanwood, WA; Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI; the Toyama Art School, Toyama, Japan; University of Sydney, Australia; Centre College, Danville, KY; Centre Internationel de Recherche sur le Verre, Marseille, France; and the MIT Glass Lab, Cambridge, MA. James Yood explained that “from his work in filigrano into reticello, zanfirico and murine into incalmo, working with blown or fused glass, the arenas of his inquiry into the possibilities of glass seem endless.
Lino Tagliapietra has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions and is represented in a global assortment of museums and art institutions, including: Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, WA; Venice Biennale, Italy; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Chrysler Museum; Norfolk, VA; Corning Museum of Glass, NY; The Danish Royal Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark; Glasmuseum, Ebeltoft, Denmark; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan; M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY: Mint Museum of Craft and Design, Charlotte, NC; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Losanna, Switzerland; Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France; Museo del Vidrio, Monterrey, Mexico; Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY; Museum Boymans, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA; Museum Het Paleis, The Hague, Netherlands; National Museum of Ceramic Art and Glass, Baltimore, MD; Orlando Museum, FL; Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy; Palm Springs Art Museum, CA; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Seattle Art Museum, WA; Shanghai Museum of Glass, China; Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA; Tokyo National Modern Art Museum, Japan; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.
He is the recipient of countless awards and recognitions, including: Borsella d’Oro (1968; Murano); Rakow Commission for Excellence in Glass award (1996; Corning Museum); Glass Art Society Lifetime Achievement Award (1997); Urkunde Gold Medal (1997; Germany); Libensky Award (1998; Chateau Ste. Michelle Vineyards and Winery and Pilchuck Glass School); Honorary Doctorate (2004; Centre College, KY); The President’s Distinguished Artist Award (2004; University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA); Distinguished Educator Award (2006; James Renwick Alliance); Cristal Award (2007; Museo del Vidrio, Monterrey, Mexico); Foreign Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007; Cambridge, MA); IIC Lifetime Achievement Award (2009; Istituto Italiano di Cultural, Los Angeles, CA); Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts (2011; Ohio State University, Columbus, OH).
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