Dale Chihuly - About His Work

About His Work

Regina Hackett, as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer art critic, provided a chronology of his work during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s:

• 1975: Navajo Blanket Series, in which patterns of Navajo blankets were painted onto glass
• 1977: Northwest Coast Basket Series, baskets inspired by Northwest coast Indian baskets he'd seen as a child
• 1980: Seaform Series, transparent sculptures of thin glass, strengthened by ribbed strands of color
• 1981: Macchia Series, featuring every color available in the studio
• 1986: Persian Series, inspired by Middle East glass from the 12th- to 14th-century, featuring more restrained color and room-sized installations
• 1988: Venetian Series, improvisations based on Italian Art Deco
• 1989: Ikebana Series, glass flower arrangements inspired by Ikebana
• 1990: Venetian Series returns, this time in a more eccentric form
• 1991: Niijima Floats, six-foot spheres of intricate color inspired by Japanese glass fishing floats from the island of NiijimaNiijima Chihuly.com from Chihuly's website*1992: Chandeliers, starting modestly but by the middle of the decade involving a ton of glass orbs and shapes that in some works look like flowers, others like breasts, and still others like snakes Chihuly has also produced a sizable volume of "Irish cylinders",photo from lakeview-museum.orgwhich are more modest in conception than his blown glass works. For his exhibition in Jerusalem in 2000, in addition to the glass pieces, he had enormous blocks of transparent ice brought in from an Alaskan artesian well and formed a wall, echoing the stones of the nearby Citadel. Lights with color gels were set up behind them for illumination. Chihuly said the melting wall represented the "dissolution of barriers" between people.Cohen, Jay (October 4, 1999). "Cooling a hotbed of unrest in Mideast?". Deseret News. http://www.deseretnews.com/article/721087/Cooling-a-hotbed-of-unrest-in-Mideast.html. Retrieved 2010-03-01.