Carlo Scarpa (Venice 1906 - Sendai 1978) is one of the most versatile and significant figures of 20th century architecture. He was the most active artist collaborating with Venice Biennale. He had been bound with the exhibition from the end of WWII till 1970’s. Within the space of three decades the Italian architect left behind an indelible trace in the form of Venezuela Pavilion, he made many interior designs for the venetian exhibition halls, and his works were often presented in the Main Pavilion. His studied many fields in design-residential space, museums, exhibition arrangement and the art of design.
Carlo Scarpa was born in Venice on 2 June, 1906. In 1926 he obtained his diploma of Professor in Architectural Drawing at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Venice. At the same time he began work at the Royal Superior Institute of Architecture of Venice (successively Architectural Institute of Venice University) as assistant to Guido Cirilli, his teacher at the universty, and from 1933 is a professor at this same university. From this moment on, till 1960’s Scarpa teaching career, together with Franco Albini, Ignazio Gardella, Lodovic Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Enrque Peressutti, who are also teachers at Architectural Institute of Venice University under the leadership of Samona, constantly accompany the activities of the architect. His years of studies are characterized by cooperation with two important glass studios in Murano, where he becomes artistic director: Cappellin & Co. (1926-1931), and Paolo Venini (1932-1947). In the period of 1927 - 1942, Carlo Scarpa receives commissions for glass objects designs, which were produced and presented on Decorative Arts Biennale in Monza, Triennale of Milan and Venice Biennale. His inclination to exhibition arrangement will ensure him long-term contacts with Venice Biennale, for which he will be creating architectural objects - Book Pavilion (1950) and Venezuela Pavilion (1953-1956) - and the arrangement of tens of exhibitions that he designed between 1942 and 1972.
Thanks to the cooperation with Venice Biennale Carlo Scarpa had the opportunity to meet great artists like Arturo Martini, Lucio Fontana, Gino Severini; Peggy Guggenheim and Carlo Cardazzo, and a few masters of modernism: Richard Neutra, Gerrit Rietveld, Alvar Aalto and Louis I. Kahn. Each of these meetings impressed a mark on the activities of Scarpa. Carlo Scarpa died on 28 November 1978 in Sendai, Japan - a country he liked very much and where he received recognition.
**Residential Spaces **
The exhibition consists 51 drawings on the topic of residence. These drawings are kept at Centro Carlo Scarpa in Treviso and they come from archival resources of MAXXI Architetura collections of National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome. Within 1930’s and 1960’s, the architect made designs not known to the general public, but which have substantial value to the understanding of his research on residential space. These are house and villa designs for Venetian clients, e.g. casa Sacerdoti, casa Pelizzari, villa Zopas, villa Veritti, apartment complexes in Padova and Feltre, interior design for Yatch Asta and Hotel Bauer in Venice. The drawings presented on the exhibition reveal a large part of his output. Nearly all were drawn with his own hands. Most were never published.
Theatre Designs
MAXXI Architetura and Centro Carlo Scarpa initiated the idea to prepare an exhibition on theatre designs by the Venetian master, in which the theatre fills the role of a connector between architecture and performance art. Theatre designs may document a wide range of the influence of Venice Biennale, which has been a theatre capable of showing various forms of artistic expression for over a century. Carlo Scarpa’s theatre designs were drawn in the time space of a few decades. In some cases these are only general conceptions, which never crossed the initial stage of designing, documented only in the form of a few archival cards. Two are worth noticing. These are designs for theatres in Genova and Vincenza. Carlo Scarpa left about a thousand cards consisting drawings and sketches, which help trace the author’s thinking from initial ideas to the last vision of the design. If realized, the designs could have been an important achievement in contemporary architectural notion and could have been written in the history of artistic accomplishments of our age.
The exposition shows projects of unrealized works, for this reason the drawing fulfills the most important assignment. It not only reveals the material object, but also the whole process of sketch preparation and convey the extraordinary talent of the architect to perceive space and his ability to present it with the help of deep knowledge of graphical techniques. Once more, it has turned out that Scarpa’s drawings are not only a tool for control and the presentation of architectural solutions, but have become a historic document possessing its own incontestable value.