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Indepth Arts News:
"Dale Chihuly: Mille Fiori"
2004-04-08 until 2004-05-01
Marlborough Gallery
New York, NY,
USA United States of America
The Directors of Marlborough Gallery are pleased to announce the opening on April 8 of an exhibition
of fantastical new sculptures by the master of glass, Dale Chihuly. The exhibition entitled Mille Fiori will continue through May 1,
2004. This will be Chihuly’s third exhibition at Marlborough Gallery. Two installations of fantastical glass sculpture will fill the gallery with a “thousand flowers” in myriad organic shapes inspired by
exotic flora.
Comprised of approximately 350 handblown glass elements on a steel base, Millie Fiori IV suggests a luscious tropical
garden landscape of flowers, gourds, reeds and fantastical foliage in a stunning range of colors: aquamarine, cobalt, teal, vermilion,
orange and dappled yellows and greens. This is complemented by Mille Fiori II and Mille Fiori V, each of which dazzle the viewer
with a masterful interplay of light, shape, form, balance and composition.
Truly original in conception and execution is Boat, a sculpture composed of an antique Finnish fishing boat and hundreds of glass
elements in bulbous, spiraling shapes. This work will be exhibited outside on Marlborough’s 57th Street terrace. In addition to the
large installations there will be thirteen new, individual handblown glass sculptures each mounted onto steel bases. Beautifully
evocative of flowers such as the jack-in-the-pulpit and the exotic anthrium, the sculptures are colorfully organic and appear magically
alive.
Art historian Barbara Rose, in her essay included in the exhibition catalogue, aptly characterizes the artist’s achievements: “The
greatest living master of the ancient medium of glass, Dale Chihuly has breathed new life into a traditional art form. He has singlehandedly
elevated glass from craft to art and reconciled glassblowing with the demands of contemporary avant-garde concerns and
aesthetics.”
Dale Chihuly has exhibited extensively in this country and abroad. His work is included in over one hundred ninety museum collections
on five continents. These include such diverse institutions as the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; the Hokkaido
Museum of Modern Art, Japan; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA;
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia; Nationalmuseum,
Stockholm, Sweden and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
In July 1999, Chihuly mounted an ambitious exhibition, Chihuly in the Light of Jerusalem 2000, creating installations within the
ancient stonewalls at the Tower of David Museum. In September of the same year he traveled to the Victoria & Albert Museum,
London to unveil an eighteen-foot chandelier gracing the main entrance of the museum. In 2001, the V&A devoted an important
exhibition to Chihuly’s work. The next year, Chihuly unveiled the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, an extraordinary technical and artistic
accomplishment, in Tacoma, WA, and millions viewed his installations for the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games.
Continuing a unique collaboration with botanical gardens, Chihuly exhibited in 2003 at the Franklin Park Conservatory in
Columbus, OH and from May 1, 2004 to October 31, 2004 he will present a glasshouse exhibition at the Atlanta Botanical
Garden. Through May 30, 2004 one can view the extensive exhibition Chihuly Across Florida: Masterworks in Glass at the Museum
of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL and the Orlando Museum of Art, FL.
A fully illustrated color catalogue will be available at the time of the exhibition.
Lyonel Feininger: Works on Paper will be presented concurrently in the small gallery. This show affords the rare opportunity to view
twenty-three watercolors and drawings by American-born Feininger (1871-1956), ranging from the charming Benz, executed in
Germany in 1909, to a series of works inspired by Manhattan in the 1930s and 1950s.
Feininger is a key artist of the twentieth century who came to prominence during the Weimar Republic in Germany and who was a
professor at the Bauhaus from 1919 to 1933. Upon his return to the United States in 1936, Feininger exhibited at various galleries
in New York and was honored by a major retrospective of his work at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1944. Three years
later he was elected president of the Federation of American Painters and Sculptors and then became a member of the Institute of
Arts and Letters in 1955.
IMAGE
Dale Chihuly
Mille Fiori (detail),
2004
handblown glass,
installation: 12 x 12 ft.
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