Organized by Cristina Beltrami

In the fall of 2026, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection casts a spotlight on one of the most groundbreaking chapters of postwar Murano glassmaking, telling the story of the Fucina degli Angeli, a creative project founded by Egidio Costantini in Venice in the mid-1950s. Peggy Guggenheim played a decisive role in the Fucina’s success, not only by purchasing several works for her collection, but also by supporting Costantini during crucial moments, expanding his network and encouraging him to develop a targeted exhibition strategy that established the gallery internationally.
Born in Brindisi, Apulia, but raised in Venice, Egidio Costantini founded a gallery specializing in artistic glass in Campo Santi Filippo e Giacomo, Venice, in 1955. Its name, suggested by Jean Cocteau, was Fucina degli Angeli (“Foundry of the Angels”). Costantini followed every phase in the creation of the works—from the initial concept to the realization in the furnaces of Murano, uniting the artists' visions with the extraordinary technical expertise of the glass masters.
Through more than one hundred works, the show traces the chronological and thematic history of the Fucina degli Angeli, from the experiments of its forerunner, the Centro Studio Pittori nell’Arte del Vetro, to the investigations carried out in the 1980s. Beginning with the first glass creations freely inspired by the ceramics of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, the show explores collaborations with artists including Arman, Jean (Hans) Arp, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, Lucio Fontana, Paul Jenkins, Oskar Kokoschka, Matta, and Mark Tobey. A section of the exhibition examines the relationship between a selection of key figures in Japanese art and Venice during the 1960s and 1970s, including Miki Tomio, Katsuhiko Narita, Omura Mikuni, and Yokoo Tadanori, while the final gallery of the show is dedicated to the Fucina’s latest experiments.
By presenting glass works alongside drawings, paintings, sculptures, and archival material, the exhibition highlights the rich experience that contributed to freeing glass from the traditional confines of decorative art, establishing it as a medium for contemporary art.