Chihuly Drawing March 1, 2015 – June 30, 2015 Dale Chihuly

Chihuly Drawing
March 1, 2015 – June 30, 2015
Dale Chihuly, Tacoma Bridge/Union Station Drawing, 1994, 42”x30”
Dale Chihuly Biography & Drawing Background
Words to Know
Curriculum
Sources
Chihuly Drawings: A Brief History
Dear Educator,
Thank you for booking a tour with Museum of Glass. We look forward
to your visit!
We’re sending you this curriculum to help enhance the visit for you and
your students. These activities have been carefully prepared to
accompany the exhibit you will visit. You can use them as pre-visit
materials or post-visit, but we strongly encourage that you spend some
time with the packet before your visit. We’ve found that students
understand and learn so much more if they’re prepared before their
tour.
Curriculum
You can watch archived videos of our Visiting Artists at
http://www.youtube.com/user/museumofglass.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/museum-of-glass---live-from-the-hotshop.
Please watch this video on Dale Chihuly and his Drawings prior to your
visit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b3Kg5wShec
We sincerely hope you enjoy these materials and your visit to Museum
of Glass.
Chihuly Drawings
Along with this packet, we have extensive curricula and interactive
activities on our website about glassblowing and working with hot glass
as an art form. Please visit museumofglass.org and click Education &
Programs on our home page. From there, visit Virtual Museum to
access the Virtual Hot Shop and Video and Image Libraries. Students
will get a chance to experience glassblowing by creating a macchia in
the School by Fire program. Students can view previous visiting artists’
videos from their Hot Shop residencies. Along the way they can also
choose to learn more about glass. You and your students can even
watch our Hot Shop Team and ask the emcee questions by clicking Live
Glassmaking on our home page and then selecting Hot Shop Live!
(If you choose to use this feature, let us know ahead of time, so the
emcee is prepared.)
Dale Chihuly
The Boathouse hotshop, Seattle, 1998
Dale Chihuly
Chihuly is credited with revolutionizing the Studio Glass movement and
elevating the perception of the glass medium from the realm of craft to fine art. He is
renowned for his ambitious architectural installations around the world, in historic
cities, museums, and gardens.
Dale Chihuly was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1941. He was introduced to
glass blowing in 1965, while studying interior design at the University of Washington.
After graduating in 1965, he enrolled in the first glass program in the United States at
the University of Wisconsin. He continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of
Design (RISD), where he later established the glass program and taught for over a
decade (1969-1980). His calling was confirmed in 1968, when he traveled to the
island of Murano in Venice after being awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to work at the
Venini Factory, where he absorbed the secrets of traditional glassblowing. While in
Venice, Chihuly observed the team approach to blowing glass, which is critical to the
way he works today.
In 1971 Chihuly co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood,
Washington. With this international glass center, Chihuly helped introduce the
European studio (team) model of glassblowing 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.
Chihuly has led the avant-garde development of glass as a fine art. His
greatest contribution to the discipline has been to emphasize the natural forces of
heat, gravity and centrifugal force in the creation of glass. While much of his work is
inspired by the natural world, Chihuly seeks to emulate the process of nature, rather
than nature, itself.
His work is included in over two hundred museum collections worldwide. He
has been the recipient of many awards, including seven honorary doctorates and two
fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Drawings
Dale Chihuly says “The drawings have given me a new freedom-if I can do it
on paper, I can do it with the glass.” Chihuly started drawing after a car accident in
the late 1970s left him blind in one eye. He gave up the physically demanding
glassblowing and began drawing as a way to communicate his ideas with his team of
glassblowers.
Chihuly’s drawings have evolved over the years from black and white charcoal
drawings to vibrant acrylic paintings on paper, acrylic, and glass. His technique varies
from the use of multiple pencils at a time to splattering acrylics straight from the
bottles, as well as using brooms and mops to help paint (1). Recently, Chihuly mainly
uses fluid acrylic paint in bottles to capture his movement and energy and enjoys the
spontaneous act of drawing. He claims “you can more directly sense my energy in my
drawings than in any other way. And from the beginning, I painted with a lot of
gesture, spontaneity, and speed (2).”
Chihuly’s drawings have become a creative outlet that has helped him develop
the ideas for his glass sculptures, whether it is what he would like created next or to
make in the future. His work is not based on concepts, but his guttural intuition. He
never knows what he is going to do until he starts. Chihuly produces about 10,000 or
more every year. The drawings are now art themselves to communicate and inspire his
glassblowers to bring his designs to life and to improvise on the themes he has
created. Like his glass sculptures, his works on paper exude a sense of life, boldness,
immediacy, and motion.
More information on the types of drawings and prints he creates can be found at
http://chihulyworkshop.com/prints.html
Chihuly Drawings
Words to Know
Jackson Pollock- (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) An influential American
painter and a major figure in the Abstract Expressionism movement. He was well
known for his unique style of drip painting. During his lifetime, he enjoyed
considerable fame and notoriety.
Action Painting- Sometimes called "gestural abstraction." A style of painting in which
paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than
being carefully applied.
Abstract Expressionism- A post-World War II (1939-1945) art movement in American
painting, developed in New York in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American
movement to achieve international influence and put New York City at the center of
the western art world. The art is largely non-representative painting, spearheaded by a
generation of American artists. These artists were strongly influenced by European
expatriates, who had grown up during the Depression and were influenced both by
World War II and its Cold War aftermath. It was neither wholly abstract nor
expressionist and encompassed several quite different styles. Even so, Abstract
Expressionism had several aims in common, a desire to redefine the nature of painting
and in the process create a new type of art.
Art Deco- An influential visual arts design style that first appeared in France after
World War I (1914-1918) and began flourishing internationally in the 1920s and
1930s. It is an eclectic style that combines traditional craft motifs with Machine
Age imagery and materials, characterized by rich colors, bold geometric shapes, and
lavish ornamentation. One of its major attributes is an embrace of technology. It
contained symmetry and tended to be rectilinear rather than curvilinear. It responded
to the demands of the machine and of new materials (bakelite (plastic), steel) and the
requirements of mass production.
Venice, Italy- A city in northeastern Italy sited on a group of 118 small islands
separated by canals and linked by bridges. It is located in the marshy Venetian
Lagoon, which stretches along the shoreline, between the mouths of the Po and
the Piave Rivers. Venice is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture, and
its artworks.
Organic shapes- Shapes with a natural look and a flowing and curving appearance.
Organic shapes and forms are typically irregular or asymmetrical. Organic shapes are
associated with things from the natural world, like plants and animals.
Geometric shapes- Circles, rectangles, squares, triangles and so on - have the clean
edges one achieves when using tools to create them. Most geometric shapes are
made by humans, though crystals are also considered to be geometric despite the fact
that they are made in nature.
Flora- Reference to plant life
Fauna- Reference to animal life
Whimsical- Playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing and amusing way.
Macchias- 14th – 17th century Renaissance improvisational drawings that look like
nature, and in the19th century meaning artist’s idea that is made into a sketch. It is
also the Italian word for spotted or stained. Chihuly’s macchias are spotted and
layered in various color combinations.
Complementary Colors- Colors found opposite each other on the color wheel, which
provide the most contrast when placed next to each other. (B+O, R+G, and Y+V)
Analogous Colors- Groups of colors found adjacent to each other on the color wheel.
“families of colors” (R, RV, V), (B, BG, G), (Y, YO, O)
Warm Colors- On the color wheel, the yellows, oranges, and reds. Colors associated
with fire, heat, and sun. (R, RO, O, YO, Y, YG)
Cool Colors- On the color wheel, the blues, greens, and violets. Colors associated
with water, sky, and ice. (G, BG, B, BV, V, RV)
Chihuly Drawings
Curriculum
Lesson 1:
March 1, 2015 – June 30, 2015
Color and Rhythm
Dale Chihuly, Pelleas+ Milesande Opera, 1992
No. 30, 1950
Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm
Dale Chihuly has a series of drawings titled the Opera series. He created them while
listening to opera arias (songs), letting the rhythm and emotion of the music inspire his
creation and application of paint much like the Abstract Expressionist painter, Jackson
Pollock.
Action painting was developed as part of the Abstract Expressionist art movement that
took place in post-World War II America, especially in New York during the late
1940s -1950s. Action painting places the emphasis on the act of painting rather than
the final work as an artistic object.
Chihuly, like artist Jackson Pollock, lays his canvas on the floor and uses many
different items with which to decorate the canvas/ paper. Pollock used hardened
brushes, sticks, and basting syringes for applying paint. Chihuly uses watered acrylic
paint directly from the squeeze bottles, as well as mops and brooms, to create his
paintings.
Pre-visit: Watch the YouTube video on Chihuly drawings and Google Jackson Pollock
action paintings named for music, comparing the two styles (1). Ask students to discuss
their findings in small groups and then share their thoughts with the class.
Post- visit Activities:
Lesson 1:
Rhythm is Going to Get You
Materials:
Classical music or Jazz
12”x18” Paper or larger
Colored pencils, pastels, charcoals, or paints and brushes
Instructions:
Listen to music (timed to 5-7 minutes) once or twice with eyes closed before
drawing- focus on how it makes you feel. What colors do you imagine? What
shapes do you see?
While listening to the music, draw what you feel and let your imagination
wander.
When complete and dry, title it on the paper like Chihuly did with his Opera
Drawings. Examples: Boulder, Tower, Garden etc. (consider the placement of
your title. Do you want it to be a focal point?)
Display your artwork/ share in the classroom and have students speak about
their work and how the music made them feel- anxious, calm, etc.
Lesson 2:
Shape and Form
Dale Chihuly. Gold over Cobalt Blue
Venetian #192, 1989.
Dale Chihuly. Teal
Piccolo Venetian, 1990s
In the late 1980s through the 1990s, Dale Chihuly designed a series of glass titled
Venetians. It was based on his residency in Venice, Italy, at the Venini Factory in 1968.
The series took inspiration from Venetian Art Deco artists, such as Napoleone
Martinuzzi, Alfredo Barbini, Dino Martens, and Vittorio Zecchin.
Napoleone Martinuzzi.
Pulegoso, 1930.
Alfredo Barbini. Pink Swan, Dino Martens. Latticino
Vittorio Zecchin. Biasato
Date unknown.
Cane vase, date unknown. Vase, 1925-1930.
Chihuly’s Venetians series takes the shapes and forms of traditional glass vessels and
reimagines them by creating glass sculptures with whimsicality, organic flora, fauna,
and flame-like qualities. He utilized bolder colors and gold leaf accents throughout his
pieces as well (3).
Post-visit Activity:
Look at many examples of Dale Chihuly’s Venetians series for inspiration.
Lesson 1:
Crazy Venetians
Materials:
Scissors
Construction paper
Glue
Instructions:
Using colored construction paper pieces, cut, crimp, bend, fold, etc. to create
your own version of a vase with flowers.
Glue pieces together in a whimsical fashion.
Display as a group for discussion of the inspirational pieces chosen and what
students liked and disliked about the project.
Lesson 3:
Dale Chihuly,
Cerulean Blue Macchia, 1988
Color and Pattern
Dale Chihuly, Cobalt Violet
Macchia, 1986
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Chihuly became interested in the integration of surface
and form, inspired by Native American baskets and ocean sea forms. His goal was to
explore various color combinations and pay homage to 1950s handkerchief vases
created at the Venini Factory.
Venini Factory handkerchief vases, 1950s
Chihuly confesses, “I’m obsessed with color- never saw one I didn’t like (4).” Looking
at Dale Chihuly’s Macchia series, they are spotted and layered in wild color
combinations and do not mix into a smooth uniform surface. They began small in size
and eventually became larger, with multiples nesting inside each other.
Post-visit Activity: Look at examples of Chihuly’s Macchia series and discuss color
combinations on the color wheel, ex.: complement colors, analogous, and warm vs.
cool.
Lesson 1:
Macchias
Materials:
White Coffee Filters
Plastic cups/ bowls
Scissors
Droppers/ basters/ spray bottle
Assorted Colored Sharpie markers
Spray starch
Rubbing Alcohol
Instructions:
On top of a flat surface, make marks, spots, etc. all over the coffee filter with
Sharpie markers. Remember to make the rim (edge) of your filter all one color.
Using a dropper, baster, or spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol, squirt/
spray the colored areas to create a tie-dye effect.
Place over a plastic cup or bowl to dry.
Spray outside with spray starch and let it dry.
Take off and spray inside for continued stiffness.
The Museum of Glass education department would like to request that if you attempt/
use one or more of these lessons, let us know how it worked, how you modified it,
and/or send us images or more of completed works. Thank you.
eemerson@museumofglass.org
Sources for Additional Information
1. Chihuly drawings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b3Kg5wShec
2. Dale Chihuly. http://chihuly.com
3. Dale Chihuly. http://chihuly.com/chihuly-artist-breathing-life-glass
4. Portland Art Museum. Chihuly: The George R. Stroemple Collection. Portland:
Portland Art Museum, 1997.
5. Chihuly drawings. http://www.merrittgallery-renaissancefinearts.com/behindthe-drawings-chihuly
6. Tacoma Art Museum. http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/Page.aspx?nid=38
The 2014-2015 School Visit Program is sponsored by the Tulalip Tribes Charitable
Fund.
Mobile Hot Shop sponsored by Key Foundation, a Foundation funded by KeyBank,
and the William Kilworth Foundation.
Museum of Glass is sponsored in part by the Ben B. Cheney Foundation, City of
Tacoma Arts Commission, ArtsFund, the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation,
and the Dimmer Family Foundation.
Museum of Glass
1801 Dock Street
Tacoma, WA 98402-3217
USA
www.museumofglass.org
CHIHULY DRAWINGS: A BRIEF HISTORY
Somebody once said that people become artists because they
have a certain kind of energy to release, and that rang true to
me. That's really why I draw.
The First Years
Dale Chihuly came from a lower-middle-class background in Tacoma. He was close
to his older brother, who was killed in a U.S. Navy flight-training accident when Dale
was fifteen. A year later, his father died of a heart attack at fifty-two. Although Dale
had no interest in pursuing a formal education, his mother, Viola, persuaded him to
enroll at the College of Puget Sound in Tacoma in 1959. He transferred to the
University of Washington a year later and majored in interior design, but he found
himself going nowhere with college. Rather than waste what little money he had, he
postponed school to travel around Europe for a year, ending up working on a kibbutz
in the Negev desert in Israel. The year abroad, especially the time in Israel, was a
transformative period in his life, and he returned to the University of Washington with
renewed energy.
A student drawing by Dale Chihuly at the University of Washington,
Seattle, 1965
Weaving with Fused Glass, 1965, 28 x 15”
Interior-design classes furthered Chihuly’s interests in architecture and design,
something that he would hold throughout his life. In a weaving glass in 1963, he
incorporated glass shards into woven tapestries, and the following year he earned an
award for innovative use of glass and fiber. By 1965, he received a bachelor of arts
degree; in the same year, experimenting on his own in his basement studio, he used a
metal pipe and melted stained glass to blow his first glass bubble.
Over the next decade, Chihuly studied glassblowing in Wisconsin and Rhode Island,
taught for several years, and cofounded the Pilchuck Glass School in Washington
State, while experimenting with environmental works using neon, argon, and blown
glass—even ice.
An automobile accident in 1976 left him blind in one eye. He blew glass for a while,
but he could not do it as well as before: he couldn’t easily see to his left side and he
lost his depth perception, which made working in the hotshop difficult for him and his
glassblowing team. After dislocating his shoulder in 1979, he set down the blowpipe
for good and started making drawings of pieces that he wanted his gaffers to create.
Chihuly drawing with William Morris, 1983
Color Samples
In 1964, Chihuly was a twenty-three-year-old student with a love of travel. He
recounts this story showing his interest in color early in his career:
In 1964, I took the trans-Canadian train from Vancouver to
Montreal on my way to Russia. I had taken a set of Winsor &
Newton watercolor tubes, and I decided I would mix as many
colors as I possibly could for the three days. I simply started
with one tube and began adding colors to it. I made color
samples and organized them in a stamp-collecting album.
During the six-day train ride—it was actually six because I
came back on the train as well—I had an album filled with
thousands of color samples, coded with the tubes involved.
Early Drawings,
Experimental Materials
I can’t understand it when people say they don’t like a particular
color. How on earth can you not like a color? I’ve never met a
color I didn’t like.
Dale Chihuly, Columbus, Ohio, 1982
From the late 1970s through the 1980s, he experimented with different surfaces and
drawing techniques. He drew on a steel surface—a marvering table—with bits of glass
or rice or beans under the paper to give it texture. For color, he used whatever he
could find around the shop: tea, fruit juices, wine, coffee, Coca-Cola, and even
Mercurochrome from the medicine kit. To quickly fill in part of a drawing, he grabbed
fistfuls of graphite or colored pencils—a dozen at a time, sometimes up to fifty.
I’m drawing, you know, fifty pencils in each hand. My mother
used to watch me draw and she’d just shake her head and walk
away wondering what the hell I was doing.
Drawings of Baskets and Seaforms were his primary subjects in the early to mid1980s, and for those he used graphite and colored pencils, often with a wash of
liquid color. In 1988, Chihuly began his Venetian drawings and switched to charcoal
to make bold, intense lines, using pastels or watercolors to add color. He eventually
replaced the watercolors in these Venetian drawings with liquid acrylics.
Seaform/Basket Drawing, 1989, 22 x 30”
By the early 1990s, he was making drawings solely with acrylic paint on heavy paper.
After quickly laying down background washes with sponges, mops, brushes, and
brooms, he drew his subjects—Baskets, Macchia, Floats, Ikebana, Chandeliers,
Reeds—in layers of energetic drips and lines by squeezing liquid acrylics from handsized bottles directly onto the paper.
Over the years, my drawings have gotten brighter. I used to do
more subtle drawings with charcoal and pencil, and now I use
mostly acrylics.
Dale Chihuly on the Boathouse deck, Seattle, 1992
Drawing on Glass
In 1974 at Pilchuck Glass School, Chihuly and a group of friends developed a
technique for drawing on glass. This was done by arranging glass threads and shards
on the steel marvering table. The glassblower, on the last gather of hot glass, picks up
the thread drawing by rolling the molten bubble over the drawing. The glassblower
reheats the form and eventually makes it into a cylinder, a simple for that Chihuly
chose as a kind of blank canvas for the drawings.
I think of the Cylinders as drawings.
Drawing Large
If I didn't draw, I don’t think the work would’ve progressed at the
rate or in the directions that the work has gone.
Dale Chihuly on the Boathouse deck, Seattle, 1993
Chihuly’s technique of using acrylics in squeeze bottles suited him perfectly. He could
physically get into the drawing process with large, sweeping strokes; he could draw
quickly and directly; and he could also make the drawings big. Worktables were now
too small to draw on, so he set large watercolor sheets on the floor of the Evelyn
Room in his Seattle Boathouse studio or, weather permitting, on the deck outside,
overlooking Lake Union. Dozens upon dozens of acrylic drawings were made on these
horizontal stages. As a number of similar-themed drawings were finished, he had them
pinned up in rows until an entire wall was covered—the precursors to his Drawing
Walls.
Ikebana with Stems, and Drawing Wall
The Boathouse, Seattle, 1991
Everything Chihuly was doing was becoming larger. The glass pieces were no longer
merely tabletop size, as he began combining them to create complex installations:
Persians were attached to walls stretched out more than forty feet; hundreds of blownglass parts were massed together over steel armatures and hung as Chandeliers or
placed upright as Towers.
Single installations, in turn, became projects comprising multiple sculptures: he
designed stage sets for an opera (Pelléas et Mélisande, 1993); more than a dozen
Chandeliers blown separately in Finland, Ireland, and Mexico were then installed over
the piazzas of Venice (Chihuly Over Venice, 1995–96); he created eighteen large
installations at an ancient citadel to celebrate the millennium (Chihuly in the Light of
Jerusalem 2000, 1999–2000). For each of these projects, Chihuly created a body of
large drawings.
Dale Chihuly working with Pelléas et Mélisande drawings
The Boathouse, Seattle, ca. 1992
Dale Chihuly, Nuutajärvi, Finland, 1995
Dale Chihuly, Venice, 1996
Dale Chihuly, Jerusalem, 1999
Custom Colors
As Chihuly developed his technique using squeeze bottles, he found himself needing
two things: unusual colors and less-viscous paint - if both things could come directly
from the paint company, all the better. He contacted the chemist at Golden Artist
Colors in upstate New York and devised at least fifty Chihuly Custom colors. For one
color, the artist recounts, “I wanted a purple that really popped. A few weeks after I
called, Golden sent me three different shades of drop-dead metallic purple. I think we
called it ‘Plum Crazy.’ Whatever it was, they really did a great job.”
You can more directly sense my energy in my drawings than any
other way perhaps. And from the very beginning, the drawings
were done, as my glass is done, very quickly, very fast.
Faxing Ideas
Although they have been rarely seen publicly, Chihuly has drawn and sketched in a
very different way over the years—in thousands of letters, almost all of which were
faxed to their recipients. Why send faxes? Always one to do things with urgency and
directness, Chihuly enjoys the speed at which the fax machine delivers a copy of a
handwritten letter to its recipient. Moreover, he has said,
“I need to make thousands of faxes to sort of distribute my ideas.
As you write a letter, you’re thinking. It’s a simple way to make
your mind work. It’s the letter, the writing of a letter, that helps
formulate and structure the idea or the thought.”
More often than not, words and sketches coexist within his faxes. Part letter-writing
stationery and part sketchbook, the artist’s fax pad, with its Chihuly Studio letterhead,
has traveled with him throughout the United States and internationally. He has put his
favorite writing and sketching tool—a black Sharpie pen—to his pad for a number of
reasons, including writing thank-you notes, giving instructions to staff in Seattle and
Tacoma, making pitches to potential clients, and designing museum or gallery
installations.
Dale Chihuly working on a fax, 1995
Faxes laid out in the Ballard Studio, Seattle, 2014
Drawing really helps me to think about things. I’m able to draw
and work with a lot of color, and that inspires me.
Series Drawings
Benjamin Moore, Lino Tagliapietra, and Chihuly, Van de Kamp Building, Seattle, 1988
The Venetian drawings, which began that glass series in 1988, corresponded with
what Chihuly wanted the Italian glass master Lino Tagliapietra and the other members
of the team to make. Many of these charcoal drawings even had notes showing
specific instructions for colors. During the early 1990s, Chihuly moved back and forth
between the glassblowing area and the drawing table nearby, and the series
developed quickly, with handles, leaves, feathers, ribbons, coils, and flowers
embellishing variations of classical forms.
The Boathouse hotshop, ca. 1990
Venetians and drawings, Van de Kamp Building, Seattle, 1988
There’s a lot of creativity from Lino, and the other people
on the team. All I have to do is make a drawing, put it up
on the wall next to the furnace, and Lino interprets it in
his own way.
Dale Chihuly, Benjamin Moore Studio, Seattle, 1990
Moving toward Abstraction
Dale Chihuly on the Boathouse deck, Seattle, 1992
As Chihuly drew other series with acrylics in the 1990s and 2000s, the artwork tended
toward abstractions. The act of drawing became ancillary to the glassblowing process,
then independent of it. Rather than placing emphasis on the forms within a Niijima
Float drawing, for example, the artist accentuates abstract layers and textures of
colors. Get very close to a glass Niijima Float and one sees the same organic richness
of surface as in the drawings.
Gilded Yellow over White Niijima Float (detail)
1995, 19 x 20 x 19”
Float Diptych (detail) 1997, 60 x 40”
Jerusalem Drawing, 1999, 40 x 60”
Dale Chihuly, The Boathouse, Seattle, 1991
I don't know what it is about drawing. It is a very physical thing. You get into it. It's like
a workout, you know?
Drawing Walls, Drawing Windows
I’ll often take the drawings, and I might put twenty or fifty
drawings together. And so I’m not limited to the size of the
paper in how the work is seen.
Basket Mural, 1994, 22 x 40’
Union Station, Tacoma
With his Drawing Walls, Chihuly assembles acrylic drawings to create mosaics of
color, each image different from every other, all of them arranged in a frameless grid.
By grouping and lighting drawings as a large installation, the artist heightens the
drama, creating something that “holds its own” in a space. Analogies exist with his
glass sculptures: a group of Persians becomes a Persian Wall; a group of Macchia
becomes a Macchia Forest; a group of large Baskets becomes a Basket Forest.
Drawings in the Evelyn Room at the Boathouse, Seattle, 1997
Traveling through Europe as a young man, Chihuly saw some of the great stainedglass windows, and he was captivated by the power that glass and light give to each
other.
Color is one of the greatest properties of glass and is
more intense in glass than any other material. Imagine
entering Chartres Cathedral and looking up at the Rose
Window. You can see a one-inch square of ruby red
glass from 300 feet away.
As an artist, he has been influenced by the use of stained glass in architecture,
especially windows designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1975, Chihuly collaborated
with artist Seaver Leslie and used stained-glass panels outdoors to make several
temporary installations at Artpark in Lewiston, New York. Five years later, Chihuly
designed windows for Shaare Emeth Synagogue in St. Louis.
Artpartk Installation in collaboration with
Seaver Leslie, 1975, Lewiston, New York
Window Installation, 1980
Shaare Emeth Synagogue, St. Louis
Chihuly combined his interest in stained-glass windows with his drawings by making
his acrylic compositions translucent and luminous. By drawing on Plexiglas sheets, the
weight of which is substantially less than glass, he could install a number of them on
an existing window of architectural proportions. Such Drawing Windows were
exhibited at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
Rose Window, 21 x 24’
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
Alternatively, in spaces without windows exposed to natural light, Chihuly has
illuminated drawings on Plexiglas with the use of artificial backlighting, as was done
for the Fiori di Paradiso Drawing Wall in Macao, China.
Fiori di Paradiso Drawing Wall, 11’ x 62’, 2008
MGM Grand Macau, Macao, China
The drawings have given me a new freedom. If I can do it on
paper, I can do it with the glass.
Burned Drawings
Dale Chihuly torching a drawing
Vetreria Pino Signoretto, Murano, Italy, 1996
In 2007, the artist began a series he calls the Burned Drawings, and the experimental
techniques that he developed were unlike those used in earlier acrylic drawings.
In the Burned Drawings, a viscous background color is made with a combination of
crushed charcoal, thick acrylic paints, and iridescent powdered pigments. Once
painted onto the heavy paper, powdered pigments are used again to dust the surface.
Onto this base layer, he draws with acrylics squeezed from bottles. But instead of
making only lines of color, he uses the bottle’s pointed top to carve into the base
layer, dragging the tip of the bottle across the paper and exposing the previously
applied color. He also uses paintbrushes and his hands to push the paint with gestural
motions. In a final step, he or an assistant points the flame of a propane torch—at
nearly 2,000 degrees—just above the drawing. Chihuly wants the dense paint to
bubble and froth in places before he nods that the work is done.
The powdered metallic pigments give many of the Burned Drawings a shimmering,
glowing quality, and standing close to them, the viewer finds surface textures unusual
elsewhere in Chihuly’s body of two-dimensional work.
I wanted to make colors and textures that have never been seen before.
Burnished Copper and White Gold Ikebana Drawing (detail)
2007, 30 x 22”
Dale Chihuly, The Boathouse, Seattle, 1995
Dale Chihuly scorching a drawing at a furnace
Vetreria Pino Signoretto, Murano, Italy, 1997
Suggested Reading
Failing, Patricia. Chihuly: Works on Paper
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0p2JgXEspAgZm11Tmw1OUVURDg/view?usp=sh
aring
Kangas, Matthew. Chihuly Drawing: The Continuity of Line, in Chihuly Drawings.
Seattle, Wash.: Chihuly Workshop, 2014.
Kernan, Nathan. The Butterfly and the Spider, in Chihuly Drawings. Seattle, Wash.:
Chihuly Workshop, 2014.
Kernan, Nathan. Drawing into Space: Chihuly Drawing Revisited.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0p2JgXEspAgeHBobTRoSFpfcDA/view?usp=sharin
g
Monroe, Michael W. Drawing in the Third Dimension.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0p2JgXEspAgMWE3bHJ6OUN6akk/view?usp=sha
ring
Murry, Mary. Dale Chihuly: Works on Paper.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0p2JgXEspAgei1ha2VOcDhWYVE/view?usp=shari
ng
Video
Potatoes & Bamboo.
http://vimeo.com/101099961
All About Drawing, in Chihuly Short Cuts II, Chapter 6. Directed by Peter West,
produced by Mark McDonnell. Seattle, Wash.: Portland Press, 2011.
Pelléas et Mélisande, in Chihuly Short Cuts III, Chapter 5. Directed by Peter West,
produced by Mark McDonnell. Seattle, Wash.: Chihuly Workshop, 2014.