Dale Chihuly Biography
In 1983 Chihuly returned to his native Pacific Northwest where he continued to develop his own work at the Pilchuck Glass School, which he had helped to found in 1971. Throughout the 1970's , influenced by the great glassblowing tradition of Murano, Chihuly experimented with the team approach to glassblowing. Working with a team of master glassblowers and assistants has enabled him to produce architectural glass art of a scale and quantity unimaginable working alone or with only one assistant.
After an automobile accident in 1976 in which he lost the sight in his left eye, Chihuly relinquished the gaffer (chief glassblower) position and turned over that position to William Morris. Utilizing Morris' substantial talent and physical strength, Chihuly developed the large scale, multi-colored forms known as the Macchia series (Italian for "spotted.")
In the early 1980's, Chihuly and Morris worked extensively on the Seaform series, undulating shell-like forms within forms. They also began the Soft Cylinder series, which combined elements of the earlier Basket and Cylinder series. In 1986, Chihuly developed the new Persian series with former R.I.S.D. student Martin Blank as gaffer. In 1988, he began the highly ornate Venetian series with master Italian glassblower Lino Tagliapietra as gaffer.
In the 1990's, while continuing to work intermittently on his previous series, Chihuly has turned his attention towards large-scale architectural glass art installations. Particularly dramatic are his 3-dimensional art glass Chandeliers, which gained international acclaim in 1996, when his two-year architectural glass art project "Chihuly Over Venice" culminated with the hanging of fourteen Chandeliers at various sites in Venice. Most recently a hybrid of the Chihuly glass Chandelier series has appeared in the form of wall Sconces.
Dale Chihuly is now widely recognized as the world's premier glass artist and has been the subject of many books, critical essays and PBS specials. Chihuly glass sculpture can be found in over 150 major museums, including the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Louvre, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Whitney Museum.
Many fine examples of Dale Chihuly glass art are available at Holsten Galleries. Our glass gallery always has at least one Chihuly chandelier hanging, as well as many diverse Chihuly glass sculptures. Chihuly glass chandeliers are also available through Holsten Galleries on a commission basis.