Dale Chihuly
© Chihuly Studio. All Rights Reserved.
Just as the blush of 150,000 spring bulbs permeates Cheekwood Estates and Gardens, Dale Chihuly’s otherworldly glass sculptures will deliver their own stamp of vibrancy.
Opening on July 18, 2020 (through Jan. 10), 10 years after the glass sculptor’s first exhibit there, the “Chihuly at Cheekwood” exhibit is poised to delight visitors with the whimsical forms and transparent hues of giant glass sculptures.
Pieces such as Sapphire Star, which looks like a giant blue dandelion, and Icicle Tower, a 34-foot behemoth containing nearly 2,000 pieces of glass, were crafted in Chihuly’s Seattle studio. Such hand-blown glass sculptures will be installed throughout the estate’s 55 acres, in various ponds and within the Museum of Art and Frist Learning Center. Two sculptures were designed specifically for this exhibition.
Chihuly has been hailed as the greatest glass artist since Louis Comfort Tiffany. With his 2002 exhibition A Garden of Glass in Chicago’s Garfield Park Conservatory, he established a unique synergy between botanical gardens and glass sculptures. Since then, Chihuly’s sculptures have graced botanical gardens from New York to London with their otherworldly shapes.
At Cheekwood, with its lush gardens topped by a limestone mansion on a hill, the sculptures will mingle beautifully with the organic forms of nature.
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Dale Chihuly
© Chihuly Studio. All Rights Reserved.
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Dale Chihuly
© Chihuly Studio. All Rights Reserved.
“Cheekwood’s topography is incredibly unique and varied throughout its footprint,” says Britt Cornett, the director of exhibitions for the Chihuly Studio in Seattle. “The hills and gardens create settings that feel almost intimate, as if you’re being enveloped by them. This variety is attractive to Dale, as it allows him to find inspiration in each space and to place his work in a way that will affect the viewers’ experience. A lot has changed since his exhibition 10 years ago, and he’s excited to work in some of these new areas.”
Cheekwood, a private home that was opened to the public in 1960, is experiencing a renaissance, making this exhibit timely. Not only will 2020 mark 10 years since Chihuly’s last exhibition at Cheekwood, it will also commemorate the 60th anniversary of Cheekwood as a public forum for art and nature. Additionally, the exhibit coincides with the reopening of Cheekwood’s acclaimed Carell Woodland Sculpture Trail and the opening of the Bracken Foundation Children’s Garden.
Cheekwood’s first Chihuly exhibit attracted a record 360,000 visitors—the most guests for any show, according to Campbell Mobley, Cheekwood’s curator of paintings and works on paper. She thinks that glass—which Chihuly has called a “magical material”—fascinates viewers for a variety of reasons.
“Dale Chihuly’s work mimics the natural colors and shapes of nature,” Mobley says. “Also, the transparency of the glass, with its reflection of light, it all comes back to nature. Chihuly’s work bridges that gap between art and horticulture in a beautiful way.”