Dale Chihuly

Glass sculptor, artist

• Born: September 20, 1941
• Place of Birth: Place of birth: Tacoma, Washington

Education: University of Washington; University of Wisconsin; Rhode Island School of Design

Significance: Dale Chihuly is an artist and glass sculptor. He adopted the team approach to glassblowing and cofounded an international glass school. Chihuly's efforts and success brought attention to glass creation as a fine art.

Background

Dale Chihuly was born in Tacoma, Washington, on September 20, 1941. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1965. He studied glassblowing with Harvey Littleton at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned his master of science in sculpture. Chihuly earned a master of fine arts degree in ceramics in 1968 at the Rhode Island School of Design. He earned a Fulbright scholarship and traveled to Italy the same year. He worked in Murano, Italy, at the Venini Fabrica glassblowing workshop thanks to a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant. This gave him an opportunity to observe and learn the team approach to blowing glass. He adapted these methods for his own purposes.

Chihuly set up the Rhode Island School of Design glassblowing program in 1969 and taught at the school until 1980. In 1971, he cofounded the Pilchuck Glass School near Seattle, Washington. He set up his first environmental installation there, on Pilchuck Pond.

In 1976 Chihuly experienced a traumatic event that seriously affected his work as an artist. He was in a car accident while visiting England, and when he flew through the windshield, his face was cut severely. He lost sight in one eye and had to wear an eye patch. He spent much of the next few months recovering and reconsidering his artistic goals and ideas.

Life's Work

The loss of vision in his left eye affected his depth perception, which influenced his ability to work the glass. He decided that it was no longer safe for him to blow glass, an activity that requires molten glass to be kept hotter than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. He had to step back from much of the hands-on aspect of creating his works. His knowledge of the team approach to blowing glass allowed him to oversee the work of his team. Chihuly envisioned large-scale projects and worked to realize this goal.

The artist employed a small army of glassblowers. Although he no longer created the works, all were meticulously crafted to his specifications to realize his vision. In addition to his glass sculptures, he also drew, made prints, and painted splatter art. He later experienced another injury, this time a dislocated shoulder, in another accident. As a result, he could no longer hold the glassblowing pipe; this further hindered his hands-on participation in creating sculptures.

For much of the 1970s, Chihuly was focused on several series, notably Cylinders and Baskets. Some of the cylinders evoked Indian blankets and were featured in exhibits in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He gave one of the basket sculptures to famed artist Andy Warhol, in exchange for a painting of a dollar sign.

During the 1980s, when he was in his forties, Chihuly developed bipolar disorder. At first, he thought taking medication would affect his work, but experience taught him that this was not true. He chose to take the medication and maintain a more even keel. During this decade, he worked on a number of projects, including the Seaforms series. These works resemble sea life, such as shells and sea urchins.

The Chandeliers series, which occupied much of the 1990s, remained an ongoing interest, a theme he returned to over several decades. He created a number of fanciful chandeliers and went on to accept commissions for other glass fixtures that shimmer with natural light. Fourteen of his chandeliers were hung over the canals of Venice for Chihuly over Venice in 1995.

He established a small publishing company, Portland Press, in 1992. The company, which published books about Chihuly's work, was renamed Chihuly Workshop in 2012.

In 1999, the artist traveled to Israel. He oversaw the installation of his Jerusalem Wall of Ice exhibit. The exhibition consisted of blocks of ice cut from Alaska and erected as a forty-by-eighty-foot wall, in which strategic portions of the three-foot-thick structure were broken. The ice wall was lit at dusk by colored lights. By design, it melted quickly in the Jerusalem heat and disappeared within three days.

In 1999 and 2000, more than a dozen of Chihuly's glass installations were exhibited in the Tower of David Museum in Jerusalem. The Light of Jerusalem 2000 project drew more than one million visitors. A major solo exhibition in 2001 greatly increased his profile. Critics widely praised the show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Chihuly focused on the MilleFiori series in the early twenty-first century. Chihuly's work was exhibited across the world numerous times in the 2010s and early 2020s. Some notable exhibitions include the 2021 show Chihuly at the Sandra Ainsley Galley in Toronto, Canada, as well as Chihuly in the Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri.

Impact

Chihuly brought attention to blown glass, and in particular, to large-scale glass art projects. He set up exhibits in unexpected places and ways, such as the canals of Venice, and maximized the use of his many glass artists in realizing his vision. His works are found in art museums, public gardens, and many other locations. The artist is also known for his lithographs and splatter paintings. He has created art programs for at-risk youths and senior citizens.

Personal Life

Chihuly lives and works in Seattle, Washington. He married his longtime girlfriend, Leslie, in 2005. They have a son, Jackson.

Bibliography

Balint, Judy Lash. "Chihuly's Big Ice Wall Is Melting, Melting." Seattle Times. Seattle Times Network, 6 Oct. 1999. Web. 22 May 2016.

"Behind the Scenes: Cleaning Dale Chihuly's V&A Rotunda Chandelier." Victoria and Albert Museum. Victoria and Albert Museum. 11 May 2016.

"Dale Chihuly." Chihuly Garden and Glass. Center Art LLC. Web. 11 May 2016.

Dorment, Richard. "The Mind-Blowing Gift of a Master." Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Limited, 24 July 2001. Web. 11 May 2016.

Hackett, Regina. "Chihuly Victimized by His Own Success?" Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Hearst Seattle Media, LLC, 16 Apr. 2006. Web. 11 May 2016.

Jackson, Christine. "Chihuly in the Garden 2023 Transforms the Missouri Botanical Garden." St. Louis, 26 Apr. 2023, www.stlmag.com/culture/visual-arts/chihuly-in-the-garden-missouri-botanical-garden/. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

"Learn More." Chihuly. Chihuly Studio. Web. 11 May 2016.

Thomas, M. "Glass Artist Dale Chihuly Subject of Westmoreland Talk." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. PG Publishing Co. Inc., 6 Apr. 2016. Web. 11 May 2016.