Dale Chihuly
"Variations in scale made it possible for onlookers to experience his pieces as intimate personal objects or to be completely immersed in them, as in his prismatic interior installations in a variety of public spaces."
Dale Chihuly, born in 1941 in Washington, is an American artist whose glass sculptures— often presented in complex and dynamic public projects— led to a resurgence of interest in that medium. In 1976, an automobile accident left Chihuly blind in one eye, and thereafter he was dependent on assistant gaffers (glassblowers) to execute his distinctive designs. Chihuly's works in glass both echo and extend glass’s historical relationship with functionality.
In 1968, He established the RISD glassblowing program and in 1971 founded the influential Pilchuck Glass School north of Seattle. There, he created the first of a number of environmental installations— a group of clear glass bulbs floating on Pilchuck Pond. He continued to teach at RISD until 1980.
Chihuly’s vibrantly coloured organic glass creations are immediately recognizable. His technical innovations enabled the production of a tremendous range of patterns, colours, and textures. Among his several extended series were "Blankets", for which he used cylindrical forms covered with patterns derived from Native American blankets; "Seaforms", shapes evoking sea urchins, shells, and other marine life; and "Chandeliers", large-scale hanging sculptures illuminated by natural light sources. Variations in scale made it possible for onlookers to experience his pieces as intimate personal objects or to be completely immersed in them, as in his prismatic interior installations in a variety of public spaces.
Born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, Dale Chihuly was introduced to glass while studying interior design at the University of Washington. After graduating in 1965, Chihuly enrolled in the first glass program in the country, at the University of Wisconsin. He continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he later established the glass program and taught for more than a decade.
In 1968, after receiving a Fulbright Fellowship, he went to work at the Venini glass factory in Venice. There he observed the team approach to blowing glass, which is critical to the way he works today. In 1971, Chihuly cofounded Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State. With this international glass center, Chihuly has led the avant-garde in the development of glass as a fine art.
His work is included in more than 200 hundred museum collections worldwide. He has been the recipient of many awards, including ten honorary doctorates and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Chihuly has created more than a dozen well-known series of works, among them Cylinders and Baskets in the 1970s; Seaforms, Macchia, Venetians, and Persians in the 1980s; Niijima Floats and Chandeliers in the 1990s; and Fiori in the 2000s. He is also celebrated for large architectural installations. In 1986, he was honored with a solo exhibition, Dale Chihuly objets de verre, at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, in Paris. In 1995, he began Chihuly Over Venice, for which he created sculptures at glass factories in Finland, Ireland, and Mexico, then installed them over the canals and piazzas of Venice.
In 1999, Chihuly mounted a challenging exhibition, Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem; more than 1 million visitors attended the Tower of David Museum to view his installations. In 2001, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London curated the exhibition Chihuly at the V&A. Chihuly’s lifelong affinity for glasshouses has grown into a series of exhibitions within botanical settings. His Garden Cycle began in 2001 at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago. Chihuly exhibited at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, near London, in 2005. Other major exhibition venues include the de Young Museum in San Francisco, in 2008, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 2011.
