Modern and Contemporary Craft: Selections from the Robert L. Pfannebecker Collection

Artist Biography

Dale Chihuly’s spontaneous, organic and colorful glass forms have been displayed and installed throughout the world in museums, grand private spaces, and beautiful natural settings. Beginning his studies in glass with Harvey Littleton at the first college-level glass program in the United States, Chihuly graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1966 before completing his MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design. He traveled to Murano, Italy as a Fulbright scholar to study with master glass blowers there before returning to RISD as a full time faculty member for more than ten years. He also co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School in his home state of Washington, and eventually returned to live and work in the Seattle area.

Chihuly’s glass departs from traditional symmetrical form, experimenting with shapes gleaned from nature and from the influence of Pacific Northwest Coast Native American baskets. Working in series and at varying scale, Chihuly incorporates chance elements, light and color as his works interact organically with their environments. At the same time delicate and substantial, Chihuly’s glass installations may be seen in the Chihuly Garden in Seattle, and in permanent exhibitions at the Toyama Glass Art Museum in Japan, Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Columbus, Ohio and at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York.