The 1950s and 1960s were a particularly fruitful period for Murano glass. Two generations of glassmakers rubbed shoulders there: some, trained in large interwar factories, chose to open their own workshop; others, younger, made their mark with innovative creations that profoundly renewed the aesthetics of glass.
Among those who founded their glassworks in the 1950s are Archimede Seguso and Alfredo Barbini. After collaborating with the firm Seguso Vetri d’Arte in the 1930s, Archimede Seguso (1909-1999) opened his own workshop in 1946. A creator and master glassmaker, he revived ancient Venetian techniques, notably filigree with the Merletto (1952) and Nero (1954) series, which achieved great success. He also produced remarkable sets such as the A fili series (1962), where technical virtuosity and formal elegance closely combine. Alfredo Barbini (1912-2007), who worked at several Murano glassworks — including Seguso Vetri d’Arte, Vetreria Artistica Muranese Società Anonima, and Gino Cenedese — founded his own glassworks in 1950, where he served as artistic director. There he developed a personal aesthetic characterized by a dense and sculptural conception of material.
Upon the death of Paolo Venini in 1959, the Venini house continued its activity under the direction of Ludovico Diaz de Santillana (1931-1989), and this continued until 1985. Like his father-in-law, he designed numerous models and multiplied external collaborations. The firm thus worked with the young architect Tobia Scarpa (born in 1935) for the Occhi series (1959-1960), a contemporary reinterpretation of the murrine vases made by his father in the 1930s; with the American artist Thomas Stearns (1936-2006) for cylindrical vases and the atypical works of the Cappello del Doge series (1961-1962); with Toni Zuccheri (1936-2008) for animals and vases inspired by fauna and flora (1964-1967); and with the Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala (1915-1985) for the two-color Bolle series (1966).
In the 1960s, a new generation of artists born in the 1930s emerged. Having become the artistic director at Gino Cenedese in 1959, Antonio da Ros (1936-2012) created numerous vases and animals in submerged glass (Sommerso). In 1961, Alessandro Pianon (1931-1984) designed a series of five birds for Vetreria Vistosi, which met with great success. Finally, after various collaborations, Livio Seguso (1930-2026) founded Seguso Arte Vetro in 1969 and devoted himself primarily to glass sculpture.