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1894
- 1970
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Painter
and designer. Born in Venice, he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti.
In the mid Twenties he moved to Murano, where for a short time he was
a partner and decorator for the glass factory S.A.L.I.R. Later he worked
as a designer for Salviati & C. and the Successori Andrea Rioda. He exhibited
his paintings in the Novecento style at the Biennale di Venezia between
1924 and 1930. Upon his return from the African War in 1939, he became
artistic director of the glass factory Aureliano Toso. From 1946 to 1960
Martens designed an incredible series of works for Toso, using traditional
Venetian techniques, he was able to obtain strikingly original polychrome
effects, combined with particularly daring asymmetric shapes and a marked
difficulty of execution including the compositions of glass rods called
Zanfirici, the colorful pieces composed with irregular shadings, and inserts
of avventurina and rods of filigrana called Oriente and the unusual shapes
of the Sommersi with the outside surface battuta and the inside cased
with polychrome glass. His collaboration with the Aureliano Toso ended
in 1963.
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