Dale Chihuly Cobalt Blue Basket 1994 Portland Press Signed Handblown Glass

Artist: Dale Chihuly
Title: Cobalt Blue Basket
Medium: Hand-Blown Glass
Size: 7.5" x 8.5" x 8"
Edition: Portland Press 1994
Inscription: Signed on underside "Chihuly PP94"
Documentation: Certificate of Authenticity included

Dale Chihuly's "Cobalt Blue Basket", created in 1994, belongs to the artist's Baskets series, widely regarded as one of the most formally innovative bodies of work in his career. The series originated in the 1970s, when Chihuly encountered a collection of sagging, misshapen Northwest Coast Native American baskets at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma. Struck by the collapsed, asymmetrical elegance of these forms, he began using heat and gravity, rather than strict control, to shape molten glass into similarly undulating, irregular vessels, departing from the symmetry traditionally associated with blown glass.

Executed in translucent cobalt blue glass, the present work is speckled with darker blue and black flecks, a surface treatment related to the technique Chihuly developed for his Macchia series. The vessel's thin, lyrical walls curve into an organic, basket-like form, its irregular rim outlined in a contrasting cadmium red lip wrap that accentuates the piece's undulating contour. The interplay of transparency, color, and gestural asymmetry reflects Chihuly's broader interest in allowing the material properties of hot glass to guide the final form.

The work measures 7 1/2 by 8 1/2 by 8 inches and is signed on the underside "Chihuly PP94", identifying it as part of the Portland Press edition of 1994. It is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. As an early example within the Studio Edition series, this basket reflects Chihuly's foundational engagement with organic form, a theme that continued to inform his work across subsequent decades.

About Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly (born 1941) is an American glass artist and one of the most influential figures in the international studio glass movement. A native of Tacoma, Washington, Chihuly first encountered glassblowing in 1965 while studying interior design at the University of Washington. He pursued the medium further, earning an MFA in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he subsequently established the school's glass program. A 1968 Fulbright Fellowship brought Chihuly to the Venini glass factory on the Venetian island of Murano, providing direct exposure to centuries-old Italian glassblowing traditions that would leave a lasting mark on his artistic development.

In 1971, Chihuly co-founded Pilchuck Glass School outside Seattle, an institution that grew into a globally recognized center for glass education and helped establish the Pacific Northwest as a hub for contemporary glass art. Following a 1976 car accident that resulted in the loss of vision in one eye, and a later shoulder injury that limited his physical glassblowing ability, Chihuly transitioned to a collaborative studio model, directing skilled teams of gaffers to execute his designs and expanding the scale and ambition of his work.

Chihuly's practice is distinguished by richly colored, organically shaped glass forms, seen in celebrated series such as "Chandeliers", "Persians", "Seaforms", and "Macchia". His large-scale installations have appeared in museums, botanical gardens, and public sites around the world, including Jerusalem, Venice, and Seattle's Chihuly Garden and Glass. Through decades of technical innovation and large-scale public installation, Chihuly has played a defining role in establishing blown glass as a major contemporary art form.