Ceramics and Pottery Arts and Resources

 

Cache pot with sea horses – Galileo Chini

C.1906-10 (design-phase) 1920 (realisation)

 

Italian 20th century ceramic collection –

 

Alberto Masetti, who comes from Bologna in Italy, has a large private collection of over 100 pieces of contemporary ceramic art by renown Italian artists, mainly from the 20th century. He also collects Murano glass vases, ranging from Venini’s to Barovier’s, and wrist watches from the 60‘s. His wide heritage of experiences, commitment to aesthetics, knowledge of artworks and their history has combined into a desire to share this beauty through itinerant exhibitions.
Coming from a family of art lovers, he was surrounded by art as a child and his passion and appreciation for art objects developed from an early age. The creativity, innovation and genius of Italian art in the 20th century held the most captivation for Masetti, hence the collection. It includes pieces that reflect the development of modern ceramics as a sculptural medium, with vases that stand alone as decorative objects without any utilitarian application.
The collection embraces a diverse representation of different artists ranging from Galileo Chini, the initiator and great protagonist of the Italian ceramic movement of the 1900’s, to Riccardo Gatti, who experimented with numerous lustres and materials to modernist innovators like Guido Gambone, Marcello Fantoni and Antonia Campi. Each work in this collection has its own particular historical background and perfectly represents the evolution of majolica in Italy, with representatives, such as Giò Ponti, Fausto Melotti, and more sculptural artists like Bianchini, Matteucci, the visionary Onestini, Sassi, and other specific ceramicists like Gatti, Tramonti and Carlo Zauli.
Masetti’s collection is dedicated to the beautiful art of Italian pottery between 1900 and 1990, realized by 27 famous Italian artists and ceramicists. The exhibition offers a major selection of art objects which, in the interwar and postwar periods, defined the artistic panorama where many artists became confident with the materiality of clay and used it as a mean of expression to overcome the limits of the academic categories of arts, crafts and design.

 

 

Baluster Vase with depiction of warriors – Carlo Zauli

1952- Height 35cm

 

 

 

Ceramiche Minghetti – freeform vase with relief decoration

Middle of the 1950’s  – Height 47.5cm

 

 

 

Marcello Fantoni, Vase with female figures in relief

Early 1950s

 

 

Vase with abstract decoration – Domenico Matteucci

FAENZA, c. 1962-63

 

 

 

Fausto Melotti, SHELL Polychromatic Enamelled Ceramic Shell

MILAN, 1960s

 

 

 

 Yellow Vase with green  female figure motif – Domenico Matteucci

c. 1962-63

 

 

‘Spaceship’ sculpture – Giacomo-Onestini

 1972 – Height 50cm

 

 

 

Vase with unicorns, multi-colour earthenware,designed by Giò Ponti, produced by  Richard Ginori

Milano,  1930

 

 

 Green ceramic pouring vessel with female face – Guerrino Tramonti

Early 1950s

 

 

Guerrino Tramonti, Vase with cat, fish, pear and sun

First half of the 1950s

 

 

 

Alberto Masetti, Bologna

 

 

 

Guerrino Tramonti, Modernist vase with sun-moon graphic

Early 1950s

 

 

 

Guido Gambone, Vase in the shape of a flask

End of the 1950s

 

 

 

 Abstract Mask in polychromatic maiolica, Marcello Fantoni,

1950’s

 

 

 

Guido Gambone, Vase with fascia decoration

End of the 1950s. Height 47.5cm

 

 

 

Lustre Majolica Vase with gazelles – Pietro Melandri

First half of the 1930’s –  Height 29.5cm

 

 

 

Bird vase in a zoomorphic form, with a triangular base – Riccardo Gatti

Faenza, Italy – 1950’s

 

 

 

Vase with abstract decorations – Riccardo Gatti

End of 1960s

 

 

 Vase with gilded handles – Richard Ginori and Giò Ponti

1930s Height 33cm

 

 

 

Vase decorated with ears of wheat – Guido Gambone

Mid 1950s

 

 

 Perugia decoration ‘Umbrian landscape’ – Rometti Manufacture, Umbertide

1930

 

 

Sculpture in enamelled terracotta with polychromatic glazing – Leonardi Leoncillo

From 1953

 

 

Spherical vase with geometrical decorations – Ivos Pacetti

AAlbisola, Italy, 1923-1924

 

 

 

Footed vase with decoration in relief,  moulded maiolica – Carlo Zauli,

1955 –  Height 47.5cm

 

 

 

Lenci Ceramiche  vase –  ‘the storm’

Torino,  1931  – Height 25.5cm

 

 

Arturo Martini sculpture in stoneware “La Pietà”

From 1941- height 30.5cm

 

 

 

Guerrino Tramonti –1966

 

 

 

Agenore Fabbri, Ceramic Vase with perforated body decorated with geometrical motifs

1953

 

 

 

CARLO Zauli, Vase with abstract decoration, 1955

 

 

 

Antonia Campi Vase

1950

 

 

 

Warrior figurative motif maiolica vase  Marcello Fantoni,

c. 1956

See more of the Masetti collection here 

 

More Italian 20th century modern ceramics

 

Vase with geometric eagles decoration – Galileo Chini

circa 1903-1910

 

 

 

Guido Gambone Italian modernist geometric ceramic lamp base

circa 1960

 

 

Giorgio Zennaro, 1979

Rago Auctions

 

 

‘Taureau’ – Guido Gambone

ca 1950

 

 

 

Chamotte textured vase with abstract horse motif – Aldo Londi ?

 

 

 

Pair Of Clear Glass Obelisks – Paolo Venini

Rago Auctions

 

 

 

Fausto Melotti