Dale Chihuly 1982 Signed Pink Seaform Basket with Burgundy and Peach Accents Handblown Glass Sculpture

Artist: Dale Chihuly
Title: Pink Seaform Basket with Burgundy and Peach Accents
Medium: Hand Blown Glass
Dimensions: 7 1/2" x 6 1/2" x 12" Year: 1982 Signed: Inscribed by Artist
Condition: Very good condition
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity

*May be first mixing of seaform and macchia elements, precursor to the seaform

The American glass sculptor Dale Chihuly is well-known for his innovative techniques for creating hand blown glass sculptures. His glass practice is a departure from traditional symmetrical and perfectly formed vessels. Instead, his works embrace asymmetry and irregular shapes to create unique sculptural forms.

Directly inspired by a visit to the History Museum at the Washington State Historical Society, specifically the Northwest Coast Indian baskets on display, Chihuly began his series Baskets in 1977. These new works explored how fire, gravity, and centrifugal force worked together to create a beautiful vessel. Chihuly’s Seaforms evolved from his Basket series as the artist sought to create organic morphologies. The fluid, irregular, and organic forms of this new series embodied Chihuly’s source of creativity, water.

Pink Seaform Basket with Burgundy and Peach Accents combines Chihuly’s Baskets and Seaforms series. Inspired by the beauty of Native American basketry and the sea, the artwork captures the grace of slumped and sagging forms with thin, transparent, and undulating walls. The soft hues of the pale pink and contrasting accents of burgundy and peach create a visually harmonious vessel. The translucence and waves allude to creatures of the sea. Furthermore, the transparency of the artwork captures the natural rhythm and fluidity of water waves.

Pink Seaform Basket with Burgundy and Peach Accents includes a gallery certificate of authenticity. The work is signed and dated on the bottom. Furthermore, the artwork is in very good condition.

About Dale Chihuly

One of the most famous contemporary glass artists in the world, Dale Chihuly is best known for his monumental sculptures and installations. He is the name behind the spectacular ceiling at the Bellagio’s flower garden in Las Vegas and the creator of the Rotunda Chandelier at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Glassworks of Dale Chihuly are considered some of the most desired collectibles between the decorative arts devotees today.

Despite his initial indifference towards education, Chihuly has spent a lot of time in school, obtaining both scientific and artistic degrees in sculpture from prestigious graduate schools. He displayed a proclivity for interior design and craft early on, but his true passion was always in the glass. He was a Fulbright Fellow in the late 1960s and an apprentice at the Venini Glass Factory in Venice. Mastering the art of Murano glasswork, he continued the experiments with glassblowing and thus became one of the people who brought the ancient art of glassblowing back into the spotlight on an international scale.

Monumental and small-scale artwork of Dale Chihuly is present in over 200 most renowned decorative art collections today, while the artist holds twelve honorary doctorates!

The most illustrious series in his work are Cylinders and Baskets he created in the 1970s; Macchia, Venetians and Persians from the 1980s, Niijima Floats and Chandeliers created in the 1990s; and a more recent one, Fiori from the 2000s.

For over 30 years, Dale Chihuly has been acting as an artistic director of his team of craftsmen, since he was incapacitated in two accidents, which left him blind in one eye and incapable of holding the blowing tube. This change allowed him to see the possibilities of glasswork on a much broader scale, while still maintaining his recognizable style.