CARLO SCARPA AND THE ARTS AT THE BIENNALE.
Artworks and glass from the Gemin Collection

From June 22, 2025 to January 11, 2026, the Gemin Wing of Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova in Possagno (Treviso) will host the exhibition Carlo Scarpa and the Arts at the Biennale. Artworks and Glass from the Gemin Collection, curated by Mario Gemin and Orietta Lanzarini.

The exhibition presents, for the first time, a significant selection from the private collection of architect Luciano Gemin, a longtime friend and collaborator of Carlo Scarpa for over a decade. Their strong bond is clearly reflected in Gemin’s collecting choices, which include key pieces that also speak to his experience working alongside the “maestro”.

Among the many chapters in this remarkable story, the curators have chosen to focus on the one that most defines Scarpa’s work: his relationship with the arts, developed through his long collaboration with the Venice Biennale. For nearly forty years (from 1934 to 1972), Scarpa in fact worked with the Biennale as both exhibition designer and architect.

The exhibition unfolds in three sections. The first, titled The Artists, highlights a group of works by celebrated painters and sculptors — including Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, Alberto Giacometti, Giorgio Morandi, Mario Deluigi, Alberto Viani, and others — who, thanks to the Biennale, played a key role in Scarpa’s artistic research and design approach. The second section, The Glassworks, features around twenty refined examples of vases and bowls, tracing Scarpa’s role as “artistic consultant” for the Murano glassmakers Cappellin and Venini. The latter had been present at the Biennale Gardens since 1934, with exhibitions designed by Scarpa in the early years of his career. The third and final section, Biennale 1968, explores Scarpa’s double role – both as an architect, capable of reshaping the spaces and volumes of the Italian Pavilion (shown through a series of unpublished sketches), and as an artist, through his iconic sculptural works: Crescita, Untitled (known as Diedro or Contafili), and Untitled (a group of three L-shaped sculptures known as Erme), all created for his Ambiente at the 34th Venice Biennale in 1968.

Through the exhibition itinerary and  the related educational activities, visitors will have the opportunity to explore a crucial aspect of Carlo Scarpa’s research, which is essential to understanding the personality of this extraordinary master of architecture and arts. The hope is to shed new light on his unique interpretation of Antonio Canova’s work, as expressed in his extension of the Gypsotheca in Possagno.