Chihuly at the Frist
May 9, 2010–January 2, 2011
The most acclaimed glass artist of our time, Seattle-based artist Dale Chihuly is beloved for his abstract evocations of sea life, flowers, and other graceful subjects. This site-specific exhibition will present selections from a variety of renowned series, among them Seaforms, Millefiori, Macchia, Ikebana, and Persians.
The Frist Center exhibition will be presented in conjunction with a major outdoor installation of Chihuly’s work at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art and a theater design for the Nashville Symphony’s Bluebeard Castle.
About Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly was born in Tacoma, Washington and first blew glass in 1965, but his calling was confirmed in 1968, when he traveled to the island of Murano in Venice and absorbed the secrets of traditional glass blowing. As a professor (1969-1980) at the Rhode Island School of Design, and as a co-founder of the Pilchuck Glass School near Stanwood, Wash., Chihuly helped introduce the European studio (team) model of glass blowing to the studio glass movement in the United States. He served as artistic director at Pilchuck until 1989, and under his guidance, it became a gathering place for artists from all over the world.
While Chihuly has been a significant innovator of form and color, his greatest contribution to the discipline has been to emphasize the natural forces of heat, gravity and centrifugal force in the creation of glass.
In his art, Dale Chihuly walks a fine line between conscious intention and chance occurrence.
While much of his work is inspired by the natural world, Chihuly seeks to emulate the process of nature, rather than nature, itself.
Over more than four decades, Chihuly’s art has explored line, color, form and technique with works ranging from indoor and outdoor, site-specific installations, like those at the Frist Center and Cheekwood, to single, table-top vessels. The vision, ambition and scale of his pioneering works revolutionized the studio glass movement and helped demolish barriers that had previously prevented glass objects from being viewed as a serious art form.
This exhibition is organized by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in cooperation with Dale Chihuly. The work displayed is protected by copyright and any copying is expressly prohibited.
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Image (top, right) : Dale Chihuly. Mille Fiori (detail), 2008. 9½ x 56 x 12′. Photo by David Emery. © 2009, Dale Chihuly
Image (bottom, left): Dale Chihuly. Macchia Forest, 2008. de Young Museum, San Francisco. Photo by Terry Rishel. © 2010 Dale Chihuly