Biography

A renowned innovator of glass design, Seattle-based Dale Chihuly has played an integral role in the elevation of glass from craft to fine art. With a nod to the centuries-old tradition of glass blowing, Chihuly transforms the medium, creating work that speaks to the contemporary world with irrevocable clarity. In contrast to many of his colleagues who sought to reconcile craftsmanship and functionality, Chihuly places the greatest emphasis on the energy and vitality of the work. Although his creations may be touted as decorative, they are first and foremost expressions of artistic vision abstracted from the shapes of the organic world. Technically impressive and masterfully crafted, Chihuly’s creations press the boundaries of glass blowing, seemingly defying the limits of possibility in their beauty, grandeur, and dazzling design.

Born in Tacoma, Washington in 1941, Chihuly did not express interest in art making until college. After one unremarkable year at the College (now University) of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, Chihuly transferred to the University of Washington to study interior design. It was here that he first learned to work with glass. In 1966, after earning a B.A., he enrolled in a Master’s program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and formally studied glass blowing for the first time under Harvey Littleton. A year later, he sought further education at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he earned a second graduate degree and was offered a place on the faculty. Chihuly declined the position, choosing instead to undertake a residency at the Venini Factory on the Italian island of Murano. As the first American to secure such a position, Chihuly learned many of the skills and techniques that would later inform his work. In 1969, he returned to the United States to establish the glass working program at RISD and to open the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, two years later. Although the artist continued to teach at RISD until 1982, the independent spirit of Pilchuck enabled him to pursue his own ideas with enthusiasm.

Over the course of his lengthy career, Chihuly’s work has metamorphosed from small cylindrical shapes into larger, more fluid designs that attest to the astounding capabilities of the medium. Unafraid to stretch limits and experiment with new ideas, Chihuly sees glass as a jumping off point—a means to achieving a broader artistic goal. As art critic Donald Kuspit acknowledges, Chihuly uses glass “not simply to ornament space but to transform it, in a total, abstract installation.”1 This vision is particularly apparent in Chihuly’s site-specific works, San Jose Chandelier Cadmium Yellow, San Jose Chandelier Cadmium Red, and Nuutajarvi Turquoise Chandelier (all 1995). Suspended from the ceiling in an act that seems to defy gravity, these pieces create an atmosphere of energy and elegance. The chandeliers appear to simultaneously engage both centrifugal and centripetal forces in order to achieve balance. San Jose Chandelier Cadmium Red, for example, appears to spin inward as if selfishly hoarding its appendages. San Jose Chandelier Cadmium Yellow, on the other hand, circles out as if releasing built-up tension.

Assembled from up to 236 pieces attached to a metal frame, the spiky tendrils of each work emanate outward as if stretching for something beyond their reach. Despite the multiple-piece construction of the works, the chandeliers maintain a sense of weightlessness as if hovering gently above the ground. Chihuly describes the works as a “massing of color,” commenting that, “if you take up to thousands of blown pieces of one color, put them together and then shoot light through them, now that’s going to be something to look at. Now you hang it in space and it becomes mysterious …”2 This sense of mystery is achieved through the intriguing integration of space, form, and light. Reminiscent of the natural world and yet crafted by a skilled hand, San Jose Chandelier Cadmium Yellow, San Jose Chandelier Cadmium Red, and Nuutajarvi Turquoise Chandelier build an ongoing dialogue between art and nature. —L.W.

1. Donald Kuspit, Chihuly (Seattle: Portland Press, 1998), 32.
2. Dale Chihuly quoted in Kuspit, 269.

(SJMA Selections publication, 2004)

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