Dale Chihuly Signed 1978 Brick Red Basket Hand Blown Glass Art

Artist: Dale Chihuly
Title: Brick Red Basket
Medium: Hand Blown Glass
Size: 4" x 5" x 5"
Inscription: Signed and dated
Year: 1978
Documentation: Includes gallery certificate of authenticity

Similar in many ways to Dale Chihuly's 1998 Portland Press edition "Coral Basket," this earlier brick red iteration features a more muted pallet of earth tones in-keeping with the early era of the artist's career. Like many of Chihuly's works, this glass piece explores the interplay of transparency and opacity, with a more saturated brick red underlay faded into a clear glass base.

The piece is finished with black threads, a type of detailing common for Dale Chihuly's work during this period in his career. While Dale Chihuly's glass art evolved significantly over time, this red brick basket demonstrates both the similarities and differences between the early and late eras of his career.

Dale Chihuly's 1978 Brick Red Basket is signed and dated "Chihuly 78" and comes with a certificate of authenticity from Modern Artifact.

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. Glass works 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 degree 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 glass work on a broader scale, while still maintaining his recognizable style.