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E V O L U T I O N S BASKETS & CYLINDERS 1979 - 2011

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E V O L U T I O N S BASKETS & CYLINDERS 1979 - 2011

Dale Chihuly Evolutions © 2012 Schantz Galleries Stockbridge, Massachusetts Tel | 413 298 3044 www.schantzgalleries.com All artwork images © Chihuly Studios, Inc. Photography by: David Emery, Scott Mitchell Leen, Teresa Nouri Rishel, and Cassandra Sohn Design by Kim Saul Printing by MCRL

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As 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the American Studio Glass, there is no doubt that Dale Chihuly has been one of the leading proponents of the movement. With this catalog of Baskets and Cylinders, we felt that it would be an appropriate tribute to Chihuly’s influence by featuring two of his earliest and inspirational series which helped revolutionize the art glass world.

photo: Ira Garber

The graceful and sublime Basket series were first developed in 1977. As Dale Chihuly stated in 1990, “Now, for the first time, I really felt I was breaking new ground with an ancient technique.” This sculptural series first began in muted colors, typical to the Native American baskets after which they were named, gradually evolving in color and size. Our collection in this catalog chronicles the evolution into a more intense palette and the influence on the Soft Cylinder Series.

Dale Chihuly, Rhode Island School of Design, 1979

Curator and art historian Linda Norden has noted in her essay in “Chihuly:Baskets” (Portland Press, 1994), that Dale Chihuly’s “...mode of expression has direct roots in American Abstract Expressionism”. We witness at once within these objects the powerful combination of contemporary painting influenced by Native American forms. There is certainly a correlation to the collective unconscious referenced by Joseph Campbell and other abstract expressionists who tapped into the universal such as Jackson Pollock and Adolph Gottlieb. We might also see a correlation between the action painting of Pollock with that of kinetics of glassblowing. There is immediacy within the process that Chihuly captures in his work, while at the same time conveying grace and balance in the Baskets. The glass form becomes an environment or vehicle for expression.

The early Cylinders which predate the Baskets, also provide a medium on which to apply drawing or painting ideas much like a canvas. Chihuly worked on this series early on in the 70’s, working with his team and developing a way to apply glass thread drawings and shards onto the surface of the vessel. This technique has continued throughout the past three decades with both Cylinders and Soft Cylinders. Soft Cylinders mirror the organic, asymmetrical shapes representative of the basket forms, while the Cylinders are more geometric and symmetrical. We include in this catalog several of Chihuly’s Drawings which show the natural relationship between the two and three dimensional modes of expression. It is important to note the gestural language conveyed from the drawings into the form and onto the surface of the glass object. With his influence on nearly four generations of artists and with his creative energy, Chihuly has spawned a renaissance in glass making and has taken the medium into the realm of high art. Chihuly understands that through the power of collaboration or the “collective force”, that something greater can be created. It is an act of sharing his vision and creative spirit that has made Chihuly a phenomenon in the art world. We are honored to present with this collection of Baskets and Cylinders 1979-2011, the magic, inspiration and light in the work of Dale Chihuly. Jim Schantz and Kim Saul February 2012

Opposite page: Detail Pair of Tabac Baskets Drawing,

28 x 36”

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The Baskets was the first series that I did that really took advantage of the molten properties of the glassblowing process. The Cylinders took advantage of molten properties only in the drawings themselves. I called the Baskets, the Pilchuck Baskets, in honor of the place where they were developed. A lot of very interesting ideas were developed by a lot of artists and craftsmen during the seventies at Pilchuck. The

Dale Chihuly, Basket Installation, Seattle Art Museum, 1977

photo: Abrams

Cylinder pick-up idea was also developed at Pilchuck in the fall of ‘74.

Dale Chihuly From a 1990 manuscript, Some Thoughts on the Baskets, 1977

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Sugar Plum Pink Basket Set, 6 x 14 x 14"

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Tahitian Vanilla Basket with Mint Ripples, 7 x 8 x 8”

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1 From: Warmus To: Schantz Galleries Subject: Chihuly 2012: The 50th Anniversary of Studio Glass Harvey Littleton rebranded the medium, stole it away from industrial design and placed it squarely in the world of high art. This in 1962. Compact furnaces that fit dramatically into an artist's studio, or, more importantly, next to a university classroom. The competition is fierce in the art world, and young students were drawn to the challenges. Dale Chihuly became a Littleton student, then went to the Rhode Island School of Design where he enabled his own students. I was a curator at The Corning Museum of Glass. I met Dale in 1978. His work was slated to be in New Glass, an exhibition at Corning that travelled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Chihuly's and Andy Warhol's great supporter, Henry Geldzahler, had been a curator. Chihuly brought the work to Corning. A sturdy cylinder and some small and medium size malformed glass baskets in delicate shades of coffee and sea green. He fussed over the precise arrangement of the Baskets: they were not nested but rather scattered on a flat surface. I wrote about Chihuly in the catalog, connected him to abstraction.

Weathered Oak Basket Set with Ebony Lip Wraps 9 x 24 x 23"

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Three decades. The Baskets evolved. Nested sets, larger scale, evoking the ocean realm or other exotic climes. Always abstract in color, texture, in the sounds of the sets being assembled. The Cylinders are a two dimensional canvas assembled on a flat table, then curved by the heat of the cylinder, a frozen embrace. The famed art nouveau artist, Louis Comfort Tiffany, made such a move when he wrapped a stained glass window around a light bulb...this over a century ago...creating his incomparable series of lamp shades. Chihuly is rightly compared to Tiffany. The Baskets go beyond the Cylinders and address the complacency of abstraction evident in painting. They compete with Pollock, and Rothko, and Morris Louis. They challenge the limits of the 1970s era shaped painted canvas, stretched on a wooden frame, like a sheet stretched over a mattress. Changing the shape of that "mattress and sheet" was so seventies, so awkward. Staining the canvas (color field artists) resulted in supremely important art, but there was also perhaps an uncomfortable alliance to the tie dyed. Jules Olitski, dreamer of the group, longed for a way to spray paint in the air and have it remain in place as an abstraction of color. But that dream did not come true.

Cobalt Aqua Basket Set with Jet Black Lip Wraps 6 x 20 x 19"

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Glass can enact the dream. Chihuly is the principal artist. He pioneered a way to blow a breath of complex color, to make the outlines natural and intriguing, unlike rigidly shaped canvas. Dale nested these convincing glass "canvases" into multi canvas sets, or sculptures, or plain vanilla vessels: in 2012 I'm still not sure what the art that Dale makes should be called, but I know how it can be described. It is decoration and form fused together, overlapping colors that never become muddy, exquisitely fine and delicate lines drawn in space or wandering within fields of color, and a series that may be revised and revisited over and over again because it contains vibrant worlds and demands fresh exploration. It is high art. It is important. Despite that, it is also fun, pleasing to the eye, and equally at home on a museum pedestal or in a living room. Warmus was a curator at Corning and has written books about Chihuly and Tiffany. He engineered the sale of the art collection of the critic Clement Greenberg to the Portland (Oregon) Museum of Art.

Cherry Blossom Basket Set with Deep Red Lip Wraps 10 x 15 x 9"

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Dappled Tabac Basket Set with Turquoise Lip Wraps 10 x 15 x 9"

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Blue Lotus Basket Set with Obsidian Lip Wraps 12 x 27 x 27"

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Tabac Basket with Drawing Shards and Oxblood Body Wrap 10 x 12 x 11"

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“ The Cylinders are a two dimensional (glass) canvas assembled on a flat table, then curved by the heat of the cylinder, a frozen embrace. The famed art nouveau artist, Louis Comfort Tiffany, made such a move when he wrapped a stained glass window around a light bulb...this over a century ago...creating his incomparable series of lamp shades. Chihuly is rightly compared to Tiffany. ” warmus

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Cerulean Soft Cylinder with Green Lip Wrap 9 x 9 x 7"

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Peach Cylinder with Indian Blanket Drawing 14 x 10 x 10"

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Brown Mahogany Soft Cylinder with Ultramarine Lip Wrap 20 x 15 x 14"

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Black Chrome Yellow Soft Cylinder with Canary Lip Wrap 22 x 22 x 17"

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Clear Soft Cylinder with Roman Green Lip Wrap 20 x 17 x 17"

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Silvered Soft Cylinder with Navy Lip Wrap 18 x 16 x 14"

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White Cylinder 16 x 6 x 6”

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Black Baskets Drawing, 42 x 30”

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Pair of Tabac Baskets Drawing,

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28 x 36"

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Tabac Baskets Drawing, 30 x 22"

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Baskets Drawing, 30 x 22"

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Few contemporary artistic careers compare in eminence to that of America’s premier glass artist, Dale Chihuly. The creator of a remarkable repertoire of objects and installations, Chihuly has been featured in national and international exhibitions for over 40 years, is represented in over 200 museum collections, is the subject of a multitude of books and magazine articles, and has mentored generations of younger artists. Chihuly was born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington and though his career has taken him around the world, the Pacific Northwest is still his home and most beloved inspiration. His foray into glass and the foundation for his interdisciplinary approach began as a weaving student at the University of Washington, where he would later enroll in Harvey Littleton’s glass program (Littleton is the father of the American Studio Glass movement and his program at University of Washington was the first of its kind in the United States). In 1968, he received his M.F.A. in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design, where he would eventually establish a renowned glass department. A Fulbright Fellowship brought him to the Venini Glass Factory in Venice, Italy, where he learned a team approach to glass-blowing that has influenced his entire career. He returned to Washington in 1971 to co-found the Pilchuck Glass School, considered today as an international destination for the study and practice of glass.

Chihuly’s impressive list of exhibitions and temporary installations includes: an exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, France (1988; he is only the fourth American to be honored with a one-man show here); Nijima Floats (1992; American Craft Museum, New York, NY); Seaforms (a national tour begun in 1995 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. that has traveled to more than a dozen venues); an installation for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ post-Academy Awards Governor’s Ball (1996); Chihuly in Australia (1998; for which he was a guest of honor at the Sydney Arts Festival); Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem (1999; an installation at Tower of David, Jerusalem, Israel that attracted more than one million visitors); Crystal Tree of Light (2000; for the millennial celebration at the White House); Chihuly at the V & A (2001; Victoria and Albert Museum, London); an exhibition at the winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, UT (2002); Chihuly Across Florida (2004; a collaborative exhibition between the Orlando Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg); Gardens of Glass: Chihuly at Kew (2005; Kew Gardens, London, featured large-scale glass sculptures throughout the 300-acre property); Glass in the Garden (2006; Missouri Botanical Garden, featuring art displayed in the garden’s Climatron geodesic glass dome conservatory and the Shoenberg Temperate House); Chihuly at the de Young (2008; a major installation of sculptures at the de Young Fine Arts Museum and Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA); lle Fiori Venezia (2009; an exhibition at the 53rd Venice Biennale); sculptural installations at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA (2010); Through the Looking Glass (2011; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston); and many more.

One of his most substantial undertakings was “Chihuly Over Venice”, a project launched in 1995 when, inspired by his fascination with chandeliers, Chihuly brought his team of glassblowers to the wellknown Iittala glassworks in Nuutajarvi, Finland to create thousands of glass sculptures, many of which were incorporated into chandeliers installed in various outdoor locations. The team traveled the project over the next two years to Lismore Castle in Waterford, Ireland and the Vitro Crisa factory in Monterrey, Mexico, culminating in Venice, Italy, where 14 chandeliers were installed in campos along the canals of a city famed for its glass tradition. Chihuly has also been commissioned for notable permanent installations, including: the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, and at Union Station, both in Tacoma, WA; the lobby of Benaroya Hall (home to the Seattle Symphony); a four-part work at Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island, Bahamas; Fiori di Como at the Bellagio Resort, Las Vegas, NV; and his first permanent installation at Sleeping Resort in Leavenworth, WA. Chihuly’s accolades are numerous and include: ten honorary doctorates; the fellowship of the American Craft Council; two Governor’s Art Awards; two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; the American Council for the Arts Visual Artist’s Award; the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award; a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Glass Art Society, Seattle, WA; and being named the first National Living Treasures in the United States. Chihuly is the subject of over 60 exhibition catalogues and books, most notably: Dale Chihuly: 365 Days (2008; Harry N. Abrams, New York, NY); Chihuly Drawing (2003; Portland Press, Seattle, WA); Chihuly Projects (2000; Portland Press, distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc.); and Chihuly (1997; co-published by Portland Press and Harry N. Abrams, Inc.).

We wish to thank Dale and Leslie Chihuly for their constant example of the creative potential for art. We would like to also extend our gratitude to Andy Schlaugh and Michael Hytenin for their support and friendship over the years. Thank you to William Warmus for his contribution to this book.

Jim Schantz and Kim Saul Schantz Galleries Stockbridge, Massachusetts

www.schantzgalleries.com

Back cover: Baskets Drawing, 2009 30 x 22”

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