Dale Chihuly Venetians
DALE CHIHULY Venetians
"Like their art deco prototypes, a sense of function endures in Chihuly's Venetians. The core forms—cones, cylinders, amphorae, bowls, ginger jars—suggest familiar vessels. Yet if vessels imply reason, Chihuly's applied ornamentation overwhelms in an organic flourish. The symmetrical core becomes a stoic base from which feathers, leaves, and ribbons burst forth. Handles spiral into disorder; lilies entwine exterior surfaces; glass prunts transform into scalloped flames. Iridescent, foiled, layered, and mottled, both the vessel and the ornament boast active 'Chihuly' surfaces."
Kathryn Kanjo
Chihuly: The George R. Stroemple Collection
In 1988, twenty years after Dale Chihuly was a Fulbright Fellow at the Venini glass factory, the artist returned to Venice. During this trip, he visited a palazzo that houses an extraordinary private collection of Venetian glass, mostly Art Deco-era examples blown for the Venini glass house, that exemplified the apogee of Venetian glass art. Intrigued by these astonishing and wildly inventive pieces from the 1920s and 1930s, Chihuly determined that he would design his own versions of "Venetians." The following summer, he invited Lino Tagliapietra to work with him as a gaffer—and thus, one of Chihuly's most daring and controversial series was born.
Of course, a series that began in imitation of tradition style very quickly evolved into Chihuly's own expression. TheVenetians in the Stroemple Collection include the Putti Venetians, capacious and ambitious vessels, each with hot-formed figurative sculptures of putti and mythological creatures included in the design; Venetians (without putti); Piccolo Venetians, the smaller but no less spirited vessels originally based on traditional Venetian themes; Bottlestoppers, three monumental vessels inspired by perfume bottles, surmounted by hot-formed sculptures made by Pino Signoretto; and a selection of Chihuly drawings of Venetians, evidence of Chihuly's creative process as he conceived of the Venetian designs. In all of the Venetians—called by Donald Kuspit a "toast to life"—Chihuly achieves his most resplendently baroque work, with blazing color, coiled tendrils, overblown flora and impish putti.
Most of the Venetians in the Stroemple Collection were blown by Lino Tagliapietra and Pino Signoretto at Chihuly Studio in December 1994.
Number of works in the exhibition:
19 Putti Venetians
10 Venetians
42 Piccolo Venetians
3 Bottlestoppers
25 Drawings
This exhibition can be enlarged by including the Laguna Murano Chandelier.
Space requirement: 2,000 – 5,000 square feet, depending upon whether the Laguna Murano Chandelier is included.