When walking into London's
Victoria and Albert Museum in
2001, it was a pleasant surprise to
find that the museum was hosting
a Dale Chihuly exhibit. Having
been fascinated by a documentary
on Chihuly and his work on PBS,
this was incredibly fortuitous. The
documentary had shown the artist
and his team preparing large installations
to be exhibited over the canals in Venice
years earlier. I had wanted to see his work in person
- and here it was. The show in London was spectacular.
I was not disappointed. Chihuly creates pieces
of art with glass - large pieces of art. One might tend
to think of art done in glass as tiny, timid, artifacts.
His pieces are not tiny or timid. They are bold,
beautiful, whimsical, fluid, translucent, forms of
glass. Dale Chihuly has been credited with taking
working in glass from being considered "craft" to
being truly "art". Some mention his name as the
worthy successor to the other great artist in glass -
Tiffany. Although their works are very different,
they both created their works with teams of assistants
and they both greatly increased the popularity
of art with glass. Tiffany's art went out of style
after WWII. Chihuly's innovative new style created
a revival and is still alive and well.
Dale Patrick Chihuly was born to working class
parents in Tacoma Washington. His father was a
butcher and a union organizer. At the age of sixteen, he suffered a double tragedy when his 21 year old
brother, an aviation cadet was killed - followed several
months later by the death of his father by a fatal
heart attack. From that time forward, his mother
Viola, a homemaker, became even more important
to him and was the guiding force in his life. At the
age of nineteen Dale discovered an interest in art
while steeped in research for a term paper on
Vincent van Gogh. He decided to attend the
University of Washington in Seattle and study interior
design and architecture. As happens with many
young students - partying took precedence over
schoolwork. After two years he quit school and
went to Europe to immerse himself in art.
Revitalized after a year of "experiencing" art - he
returned to the University. In 1965 he received his
B.A. in interior designed from the University of
Washington. Experimenting in his basement studio,
he tried to blow glass for the first time. He immediately
knew that was what he wanted to do.
"That little basement only had a sixfoot
ceiling, and one night I melted
stained glass between four bricks in a little
ceramic kiln. I put a pipe in there and
rolled it up and took it out and blew a
bubble. And I had never seen glassblowing
done. As soon as I blew that bubble, I
wanted to become a glassblower."
Dale Chihuly, 1996
Obsessed with wanting to blow glass, he found that the
only place that was teaching "glass art" was the University
of Wisconsin - Madison. It was the first glass- teaching program
in the United States and was taught by Harvey
Littleton - the son of one of the inventors of Pyrex glass.
Littleton's goal was to move glass- work out of the factories
and into the artist's studios - studio glass. Chihuly received
his M.S. in sculpture from Wisconsin.
Glassblowing has been around a long time. It was invented
in the time of the Roman Empire, and the steps and tools
have remained essentially the same since then. Unlike any
other form of art, glassblowing requires teamwork because
of the extreme heat needed to melt the glass. The furnace
contains molten glass at approximately 2150 degrees
Fahrenheit. One person (the gaffer or maestro) is in charge
of the piece being created. The gaffer shapes the piece while
the assistants help cool it off where needed and protect the
gaffer's arm from hot glass. It requires constant movement
and timing. It is not unusual for the glass to break.
By 1975 Chihuly was creating his Cylinders. He had
produced a series entitled Navajo Blanket Cylinders, and
then evolved into his Irish and Ulysses series. Inspired by
James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses, the cylinders depicted
scenes from the book. Excited about his new group of
pieces, he was traveling around the U.K. lecturing, when
he and his friend had a horrible car wreck. Chihuly was
thrown through the windshield and spent weeks in the
hospital. His injuries required 256 stitches on his face and
he lost the sight of his left eye. His right foot and ankle
were permanently disabled. His black eye patch became his
trademark, but his loss of depth perception made teamwork
even more important for his work. To compound the
issue - in 1979 while bodysurfing in Southern California,
Dale dislocated his shoulder. This, along with his loss of
sight, convinced him to hand over the role of gaffer. He began making drawings to guide his team to
the results he wanted. His teams varied in
number from two to a dozen or more people
- depending on the size and difficulty of the
piece they were creating. His workers refer to
him as the "wind in their sails."
Chihuly's works have achieved such popularity
that they have been shown in major
shows and museums throughout the world.
His pieces are collected by Presidents, as well
as Hollywood stars. We can see them displayed
at the Aquarium in Monterrey near
the exotic Jelly Fish display. His exotic
Seaform Series are the perfect fit alongside
the fluid - dancing Jellies.
Four years after first seeing Chihuly's
exhibit, I was back in London. While taking
a boat ride, out to Kew Gardens, there was
Chihuly's work again. This time they were
interspersed among the gardens and resplendent
in a boat -floating on the pond. Again,
they were glorious. Luckily, he and his team
are proficient so his art is displayed in many
venues from Vegas to St. Louis. If you'd like
more information about Dale Chihuly or his
exhibits, check out his website: chihuly.com