Pipa Pescatore (Pipa the Fisherman)

With the encouragement and support of the American avantgarde art collector and gallerist Peggy Guggenheim (1898–1979), Egidio Costantini founded the Fucina degli Angeli (Forge of the angels), a center for glass studies, on the island of Murano in the early 1950s. The aim of the Fucina was to promote collaboration between contemporary artists and glassmakers by inviting artists to work with Venetian maestri. Guggenheim introduced Costantini to a coterie of elite artists, including Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, and Hans Arp. The Fucina flourished with the help of these and many other internationally known artists, including Antoni Clavé, who traveled to Venice for its prestigious Biennale. A celebrated Catalan painter, printmaker, and sculptor, Clavé was also respected for his stage and costume design. Best known for his works that combine paint with collage, Clavé was influenced by Post-Impressionist French painters—such as Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, and other members of the group known as Les Nabis (The prophets)—as well as Pablo Picasso and Georges Rouault. Born in Barcelona, Clavé fled to France after the Spanish Civil War, settling in Paris in 1939. In 1956, he won an award at the Venice Biennale. It is likely that Clavé became acquainted with Costantini at this time and was invited to try his hand at glass design. In 1965, Clavé moved to the south of France, near Saint-Tropez, where he spent the rest of his career. Unsigned. Published: Marino Barovier, Venetian Art Glass: An American Collection, 1840–1970, Stuttgart: Arnoldsche, 2004, p. 332; and Egidio Costantini: Il maestro dei maestri, Brussels: Espace Medicis, 1990, p. 205. See also José Francisco Yvars Castelló and Antoni Clavé, Antoni Clavé: Un mondo de arte, obras 1934–2002, Madrid: Turner, 2010.