Vase from the Oriente series by Dino Martens

Vase from the Oriente series by Dino Martens, Aureliano Toso, Murano, Italy, circa 1955–1958.
Murano blown glass vase from the Oriente series, designed by Dino Martens for the Aureliano Toso glassworks in the mid-1950s. Slightly truncated in form, with thick walls and a freely shaped, subtly everted rim, the vase is distinguished by a decorative composition of remarkable pictorial intensity.
The surface is animated by a profusion of chromatic fields—vivid yellow, turquoise blue, coral red, coppery brown, and opaline white—arranged in broad, irregular areas, punctuated by zanfirico glass inclusions and a large black-and-white star motif.
Dino Martens (1894–1970) was one of the leading figures in the renewal of Murano glass in the 20th century. Artistic director of the Aureliano Toso glassworks from 1939 to 1963, he developed a bold and experimental body of work marked by great formal and chromatic freedom. His emblematic series of the 1950s, such as Oriente, Pavone, and Zanfirico, reflect a distinctly pictorial approach to glass, at the intersection of decorative art and modern abstraction.