Dale Chihuly Lapis Blue and Ruby Red Seven Piece Signed 1988 Seafom Set

Artist: Dale Chihuly
Title: Lapis Blue and Ruby Red Seven Piece Seaform Set
Medium: Hand Blown Glass
Size: Largest element measures 14" x 18" x 35" deep
Inscription: Signed and dated on one element 'Chihuly 88'
Year: 1988
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity

Seven hand-blown glass elements come together in this work to form a striking study in chromatic contrast, pairing a luminous lapis blue vessel with a nested cluster of richly saturated ruby red forms. The principal vessel opens in a deeply folded, biomorphic silhouette, its undulating surface catching and bending light across broad, wave-like ridges. Within its cavity, a grouping of ruffled and coiled red elements, rendered with Chihuly's signature fine ribbing, cascades outward in layered, overlapping curves, their sinuous profiles suggesting the rhythm and pull of ocean currents.

The Seaform series, of which this set is representative, grew out of Chihuly's interest in ceding a degree of control to the glassblowing process itself, allowing gravity, centrifugal force, and the innate behavior of molten glass to shape each final form. This approach yields compositions marked by asymmetry and organic variation, ensuring that no two groupings within the series are ever fully alike.

Dated 1988, the present set captures an early, formative point in the evolution of Chihuly's large-scale, multi-element compositions, a working method that would become increasingly central to his output in the decades that followed. The largest element measures 14" x 18" x 35" deep. One element is signed and dated "Chihuly 88". The set is accompanied by a Gallery Certificate of Authenticity.

About Dale Chihuly

Dale Chihuly (b. 1941) is an American artist celebrated for revolutionizing blown glass as a fine art medium through monumental sculpture, immersive site-specific installations, and a pioneering model of collaborative studio production. Regarded as one of the most consequential figures in the history of studio glass, his work has moved the medium decisively beyond craft and function into the realm of contemporary art.

A native of Tacoma, Washington, Chihuly began his academic training in interior design at the University of Washington before pursuing graduate study in sculpture, earning a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a Master of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design. A Fulbright Fellowship in 1968 brought him to Venice, where he trained at the storied Venini glassworks and encountered the collaborative, team-based traditions of Murano's glassblowers—an experience that would profoundly shape his own working method.

Chihuly went on to co-found the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, in 1971, an institution that became a driving force in the growth of the American studio glass movement. After sustaining a shoulder injury in 1976 and losing sight in one eye in 1979, he shifted from hands-on glassblowing to a directorial role, orchestrating skilled teams of artisans to realize his artistic vision.

Chihuly's best-known bodies of work—among them Baskets, Seaforms, Persians, Macchia, Chandeliers, and Fiori—are distinguished by bold color, organic form, and compositions drawn from the rhythms of the natural world. His art has been presented at leading museums, botanical gardens, and civic spaces around the globe, and his pieces reside in an extensive array of public and private collections, cementing his lasting impact on the trajectory of contemporary glass and installation art.