Giustini / Stagetti

Thomas Stearns was born in Oklahoma City, in the United States, in 1936. Stearns' artistic training developed in the United States during the 1950s: he first studied at the Memphis Academy of Arts, then at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. During these years, he focused primarily on painting, textile art, and to some extent, glass, though he worked in flat, two-dimensional forms, such as sheets.

In 1960, at just 24 years old, he received a postgraduate scholarship from the Italian government, along with a Fulbright Travel Grant. Being always fascinated by the work of Paolo Venini, whom he called “the most skilled and avant-garde artist in Murano in the field of colored glass art”, Stearns arrived in Murano, where he began a collaboration with the Venini glassworks. The company had just passed under the leadership of Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, Paolo Venini’s son-in-law, following Venini’s death the previous year.

The start of the collaboration was not easy: Stearns did not speak Italian and communicated only with the director and his secretary; with the glassblowers, he relied on drawings to illustrate, step by step, the operational sequences needed to produce the different models.

He had no experience with three-dimensional blown glass, but the company, also interested in the production of architectural glass, saw potential in his profile. In an entirely exceptional move, De Santillana gave him access to all areas of the furnace: blowing, hot working, annealing, and cold finishing. Stearns furthered this technical knowledge by attending the Experimental Glass Station of Murano.

Stearns’ initial approach to the furnace met with some resistance, due to the highly experimental nature of his designs: irregular shapes, complex profiles, opaque and tactile colours, far from the Murano aesthetic of the time. The person who enthusiastically embraced his vision was Francesco Ongaro, known as Checco, then a young apprentice. A deep understanding developed between the two, destined to last over time. From that moment on, Checco became the sole executor of his projects.

At the end of his scholarship, Stearns was offered an extension of the collaboration as a Guest Designer. He accepted and stayed another year at the glassworks, where he focused mainly on vase design but also experimented in lighting.

His muse was Venice: the reflections of the lagoon, especially at night, were his main source of colour inspiration. The Cappello del Doge series, also featured in Domus in 1962, was explicitly inspired by the headwear of Venetian doges.

In the same year, he took part in the Venice Art Biennale, presenting six glass works made with Venini. His pieces received unanimous praise from the jury and came close to winning the gold medal, which was later withdrawn when it was discovered that the artist was not Italian.

At the end of his contract, he declined another offer to stay: after two intense years, Stearns left Murano and returned to the United States. He would never work with glass again.

Back home, he resumed working in fibre sculpture and teaching at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Thomas Stearns died in Philadelphia in 2006.