5 fascinating facts about Dale Chihuly
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Dale Chihuly has been engaged with the glittering craft of advanced materials for for 50 years. The American artist has contributed to making the age-old handicraft into a global art form with his transcendental, jewel-toned statues, which are shown in prestigious locations all over the world.
While admiring one of Chihuly’s glistening creations, you might not be familiar with the man who created the blown glass. These fascinating Dale Chihuly facts will help you understand more about the modern maestro.
The renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly is the subject of the following 5 interesting facts.
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Dale Chihuly was born in Washington in 1941. The Tacoma native says his upbringing was “absolutely typical,” but catastrophe made his adolescence very turbulent. His father passed away from a heart attack in 1958, and his brother died in an aircraft disaster in 1956. Chihuly retreated from formal schooling and broke the window of a police vehicle as a way of coping with such losses.
But by the time he was 20, he was back in class. He pursued interior decorating studies at the University of Washington and the University of Puget Sound, where he also completed a weaving course. Interestingly, it was this course that inspired him to pursue a career in glass; he switched his attention from furniture decorating to glassmaking after creatively integrating the medium into his textile creations.
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Chihuly was first drawn to windows, even though he would later become famous for his glistening artworks. In 1962, Chihuly visited Europe and was enthralled by the stained – glass windows that adorned the continent’s temples, cathedrals, and other houses of worship. His fascination with stained glass windows, nevertheless, was not restricted by its religious functions; in fact, he found the tradition’s secular aspect to be its greatest appeal.
According to Timothy Anglin Burgard in his book The Art of Dale Chihuly, “It did not leave Chihuly’s notice that these large-scale religious art projects, from the 12th-century Chartres Cathedral to Matisse’s 1951 Chapel of the Rosary in Vence, were visited by hordes of visitors who revered these glass works, not for their theological content, but as timeless works of art.”
In reality, it was because of these windows that he was motivated to incorporate glass into his woven fabrics, which led to his “unexpected” introduction to the art of glassblowing, which involves shaping molten glass using a blowpipe. He mused, “I don’t understand why I did it. “I had never saw it done before. I didn’t know anyone with glassblowing skills.
Chihuly had dedicated himself to glassblowing by 1965. He combined formal schooling with field study to hone the technique. For instance, Chihuly’s studies during the following ten years led to the completion of a Fulbright Fellowship, a Master of Science in sculpting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. He also travelled extensively during this time, spending more time in countries including Italy, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the United Kingdom, where he had a tragic accident.
The 35-year-old artist was hurt badly in a car accident in England in 1976. He was propelled through the windshield during the incident. He sustained significant facial injuries and lost vision in his left eye due to glass fragments. This is the reason he still wears an eyepatch and has stopped creating his own artwork by hand.
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After the incident, Chihuly had the sobering conclusion that it would be difficult to work with molten glass while being blind in one eye. This concern was confirmed in 1979 when Chihuly suffered a shoulder injury while bodysurfing. With his vision issues, this disability would make creating glass almost difficult. Chihuly chose to modify his method and depend on a group to execute his ideas rather than completely giving up his art.
It was a time of personal transformation for me in many ways. Chihuly elucidates. “I needed months to recover, which allowed me plenty of time to reflect about my work and the path I wanted to take as an artist. Due to my impaired vision and properly represented after the disaster, I assumed a greater leadership role among my group. As a result of working in this role, I was able to work on a much wider scale and really push the content.
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The vibrant colour schemes, ethereal iridescent colors, and larger-than-life scales of Chihuly’s ethereal glass creations still enthral viewers today. It is not surprising that Chihuly is one of modern art’s most celebrated personalities with such a staggering body of work. His achievements include a Seattle Weavers Guild Award (awarded in 1964), a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, two National Council for the Arts Fellowships, an American Craft Council Gold Medal, among many others, in addition to a dozen honorary doctorates.
Nevertheless, Chihuly believes that his glassblowing practise is about far more than just building on his prior accomplishments; it’s about ensuring the continuation of his enthusiasm. He claims, “I don’t think enough about the past.” “I consider the future more. I would much rather be planning my day for tomorrow.
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