Dale Chihuly Buttercup Persian Sold Out Limited Portland Press Glass Sculpture

Condition: Signed and dated by Chihuly in Mint condition.  Includes Acrylic Display Vitrine

Signed and dated on the bottom by the artist.  Includes original Chihuly display case.  Guaranteed Authentic and includes gallery certificate of authenticity.

Buttercup Yellow Persian with Red Lip Wrap is the Quintessential Persian - a flowerlike form resting on a ball foot with gently fluted edges and fine lines that spiral precariously around the body.  The condition of this piece is new and comes with original acrylic case.

The first Chihuly Persians were made in 1986. An eccentric collection of brightly colored and unusually shaped objects - primarily small bottles and vessels - the earliest Persians looked “archaeological” to Chihuly, like excavated ancient treasures. Chihuly sensed that these objects represented a formal direction in his art that was experimental, new, and exotic. Exhibited for the first time in Chihuly’s 1986 solo exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs of the Palais du Louvre in Paris, the Persians were described in the exhibition catalogue as “new possibilities from the blowpipe.”2 At the time of the Louvre show, the series was still untitled.

“In the beginning, the Persians had to do with the contrast between two colors ... between open and closed forms ... and the intensity of the body wraps,” Chihuly has recalled. (“Body wrap” is Chihuly’s term for the stripe of color applied to the body of a piece.) Soon, the early Persians’ color-saturated, contrasting body wraps were seen by the artist as alternately “Persian,” “Byzantine,” and “minaret-like,” almost “Persian and Roman too.” More interested in the East than the West, Chihuly liked the sound of the word “Persian,” the associations it inspired, and the series found a name.

An early interest in art beginning at a young age spurred Chihuly to pursue a long and varied artistic education. Born in Tacoma, Washington in 1941 the artist grew up there and studies Interior Design at the nearby University of Washington. After his graduation he enrolled in the country first glass program at the University of Wisconsin. In 1968, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study glass blowing at the renowned Venini glass factory in Venice, Italy. A the Venini factory, Chihuly was exposed to the team approach to glass blowing that he would go on to incorporate throughout the rest of his career. He later went on to study and receive his second master’s degree from the widely respected Rhode Island School of Design. After his graduation, Chihuly was asked to create and head the school’s first glass department. During this time, he also maintained his Washington roots by beginning the Pilchuck glass school near Stanwood in 1971. It was here he first began significantly pushing the envelope of glass sculpture. He began creating the indoor and outdoor artistic installation which would later go on to become a hallmark of the artist’s work.

 During 1971, Chihuly also opened his first exhibition in New York. The work showcased designs influenced by Navajo blanket patterns. The Native American population of the Northwest would go on to play a landmark role in Chihuly’s work, as he would also go on to create a series inspired by their basket work. This famous series known as Baskets and Cylinders was showcased in 1978 at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. After this exhibit, Dale Chihuly’s career really began to take off. By 1980, he was showcasing in installations, one man shows, and art exhibits around the world including ground breaking shows in Israel and Brazil.