Dale Chihuly (American, b. 1941), “Turquoise Reeds and Blue Marlins”, 2015, Blown glass, © Dale Chihuly / Chihuly Studio, Photo by Gary Marshall, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va.
The scintillating splendor of Dale Chihuly’s artistry comes alive with Chihuly in the Garden at the Chrysler Museum of Art. This special outdoor installation, which opens April 11 in the Museum’s Memorial Garden, pays tribute to Norfolk’s natural and nautical beauty. Outdoor exhibition complements Virginia Arts Festival-Virginia Symphony production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, featuring theatrical sets by the renowned artist.
A hundred of the artist’s vibrant glass Reeds and Marlins will shine in the sunlight from within the Museum’s waterfront garden, with its grand live oak, sparkling central fountain, and tranquil waterfront view. Nighttime illumination will show the blue works in glass in a different, more dramatic light. Memorial Garden will be open to the public daily from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m.
“Museums rarely have opportunities to show glass outside the confines of the galleries, so it is with great excitement that we bring you the genius of Dale Chihuly’s artwork in our Memorial Garden,” said Diane C. Wright, Carolyn and Richard Barry Curator of Glass.
Chihuly in the Garden, organized in cooperation with Chihuly Studio in Seattle, will be on view at the Chrysler Museum through Harborfest weekend, ending Sunday, June 7. Admission is free.
The exhibition is part of a collaborative Chihuly celebration between three premier arts organizations based in Norfolk. Works by the artist also will be featured on the stage as Virginia Arts Festival, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and the Chrysler present Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Chihuly designed six beautiful sculptures specifically for the moody musical drama in 2009. These breathtaking sets, 14 feet tall, convey the psychological and emotional drama of this operatic tale. This one-act spectacle of sight and sound comes to Chrysler Hall on April 18 and 19. Tickets are available for purchase at www.vafest.org.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Dale Chihuly is credited with revolutionizing the Studio Glass movement and elevating the perception of the glass medium from the realm of craft to fine art. He is renowned for his ambitious architectural installations around the world, in historic cities, museums, and gardens. Chihuly’s work is included in more than 200 museum collections worldwide including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Corning Museum of Glass.
The Chrysler Museum’s extensive glass collection includes one of Chihuly’s acclaimed Venetian series sculptures, a 1990 collaboration with master Italian glassblower Lino Tagliapietra. Chihuly’s work also served as a keystone exhibition in 1999’s Art of Glass, a celebration of glass art across the Hampton Roads region.
ABOUT THE CHRYSLER MUSEUM OF ART
The recently expanded Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, is one of America’s most distinguished mid-sized art museums, with a nationally recognized collection of more than 30,000 objects, including one of the great glass collections in America. The core of this collection was given to the Museum by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., an avid art collector who donated thousands of objects from his private collection to the Museum in 1971. In the years since Chrysler’s death in 1988, the Museum has dramatically extended its campus and developed new ties with the Norfolk community. It has rapidly growing collections, especially in the fields of contemporary glass, American art, and photography.
In 2011, the Chrysler opened a full-service glass studio with a 560-pound capacity furnace, a full hot shop, a flameworking studio, nine annealing ovens, and a coldworking shop. In addition, the Chrysler administers two Federal-period historic houses in downtown Norfolk: the Moses Myers House and the Willoughby-Baylor House.
The Chrysler Museum of Art, One Memorial Place, Norfolk, and its Perry Glass Studio at 745 Duke St., are open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. The Historic Houses on E. Freemason Street are open weekends. Admission is free. For more information on exhibitions, events, and programs, visit www.chrysler.org
