Saturday, December 15, 2012

Chihuly in Richmond, VA

Several years ago Dale Chihuly's work was exhibited in St Louis' Botanical Garden. My friends raved about it but I didn't manage to go and see it there. So when he came to Nashville's Cheekwood Botanical Garden we went to see it. That was in July 2010. I wanted to refer to the pictures I had taken but it was before I had started this blog site. Its a shame because the exhibition there was so different from what we saw this time.

We are members of the Richmond's VMFA. Every so often there is a new special exhibition and we try to see it. It's free for members so it is not a loss if we don't like it.

We were again very pleasantly surprised.
Title: Fiori and Float Boats

In Nashville this actually floated on the lake.

This is the "Drawing Wall".  Dale Chihuly began to draw after loosing his left eye and dislocating his shoulder to communicate his vision and design to his team.

Title: Persian Ceiling

Lots of his glass creations (leftovers?) are laying on top of a glass ceiling between two rooms and you can walk underneath it. It is really quite stunning and interesting.




The next room was dedicated to his huge collection of Native Indian blankets and baskets. In this series Chihuly tried to capture "the grace of the baskets' slumped, sagging forms".



I remember this from Nashville. It was on water too.

A close-up.
And another.
When you see James next to it, you can imagine the size of the sculptures.
Yes, quite impressive.

And if you want to know more, you can go to Dale Chihuly's website.

1 comment:

Kim S. said...

We loved this exhibit and are so happy that some of his work are now permanent exhibits. Though we do miss the bunny when we drive down the boulevard!