Dale Chihuly 1979 White Tabac Basket w/Brown Stripes Signed Contemporary Handblown Glass Art

Artist: Dale Chihuly
Title: Tabac Basket with Brown Stripes
Medium: Hand blown Glass
Size: 5.5" high
Year: 1979
Inscription: Signed, marked ''Baden'', dated ''79'," and model number "58B"

Produced in Dale's Famous 1979 visit to the Lobmeyr studios in Baden, Austria. The first room at Dale Chihuly's flagship museum in Seattle contains a series of the artist's Tabac Baskets, and for good reason; the Tabac baskets were the earliest series of baskets created by the artist. This colorless basket with brown stripes is an extraordinary example of Dale Chihuly's early work, showing off both the eye for detail and the creativity that would go on to define his art career. The color pallet and irregular stripe motif are both emblematic of Chihuly's early glass art, but the regularity of the stripes and the percentage of the basket they take up are unlike many Tabac basket's we've seen before. Among Chihuly collectors, his early works are the most prized. At the beginning of his career, Chihuly worked without a team, severely limiting the number of piece editions he was able to produce. The differing aesthetic qualities between his early and late works give us crucial information about the development of such a pioneering glass artist. Dale Chihuly's 1979 Tabac Basket with Brown Stripes is signed, dated, and numbered by the artist and comes with a Modern Artifact certificate of authenticity.

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.