Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Q: Which city in the world do you think produces more glass blowers and sells more blown glass in shops than anywhere else in the world?
A: Seattle, USA.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is not Murano in Venice, and this may have something to do with the fact that Seattle is home to the glass blowing studio of one of the most internationally renowned glass artists and his team of almost 100 craftsmen – Dale Chihuly.
Chihuly (born 1941) first became interested in glass while studying for an interior design degree at the University of Washington, Seattle. As part of a unit on weaving, Chihuly started experimenting in weaving glass onto tapestry, before melting, shaping and blowing his own creations. From here, Chihuly’s passion for glass blowing was born.
In 1967, Chihuly went to Murano, Venice and on his return to the US, was invited to set up a new glass blowing program at the Rhode Island School of Design. Two years later he co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School, outside of Seattle, which to this day continues to exist as the leading educational training centre for studio glass blowing.
Until 1976, Chihuly was blowing glass himself, but a car accident which claimed the vision of his left eye and a sporting injury the year later, meant Chihuly was forced to take a step back from his own glass creations, and in Chihuly’s words, he became “more choreographer than dancer, more supervisor than participant, more director than actor”.
Collection: Powerhouse Museum
Today, Chihuly and his team produce more blown glass as installation pieces and commissioned sculptures for corporate and private patrons, as well as for exhibitions and collectors. In the Powerhouse Museum’s collection are two amazing works from his Macchia series, which we acquired in 1992, including Violet macchia set with teal lip wraps and Deep cobalt macchia with yellow lip wrap. Both works were featured in the 1993 exhibition ‘Chihuly in Australia: Glass and Works on Paper’ at the Museum and are now on display in the Inspired! and Experimentations galleries.
What are your favourite Chihuly works? If you’re not familiar with the extent of his glass blowing creations, as well as his original designs and drawings, click here.
