Chihuly at the New York Botanical Gardens

The Sun

The Pictures on these pages are from Dale Chihuly's show at the New York Botanical Gardens in Fall of 2006. Another Chihuly environment is currently installed at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh.

November 2006—We managed to catch the Chihuly show at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. Seattle-based glass artist, Dale Chihuly, has been designing and creating organic shapes in glass for decades, and this show had something of the quality of a retrospective. Some of the forms, such as the baskets, have been part of his repertoire since the 1970s, but the exhibit installations were designed especially for their settings in the Garden.

Surprisingly, the gardens were still lush and full of color…bright mums, blue monkshood, and ornamental kales, with gorgeous fall foliage as a backdrop. The Chihuly show was spread out over the grounds in six interior and exterior locations.

The Sun (photo above) outside the Visitor’s Center was a welcoming large-scale piece set over a reflecting pool. Shots of this piece at night (available at the Chihuly website) are just luminous.

The Haupt Conservatory site housed both interior sculptures and two exterior installations. The Tropical Pool, with dominant blues, provided a venue for several of typical Chihuly forms. The peaked globes in the water are Walla Wallas. They seem to float, but are actually tethered to the bottom.

Blue Walla Wallas

Red Reeds

Chihuly also created Red and Blue Reeds (photo above, left). These elongated blown shapes, some over 10-ft tall, must be created by a team of artists. The glassblower stands on a platform, while another artist pulls the shape from below..

Chihuly developed the idea of boats filed with glass shapes in Finland in 1995.

The Temperate Pool repeated some of the same forms as the tropical pool, but in a different spectrum.
Inside the greenhouses, dozens of Chihuly’s whimsical Ikebana, inspired by traditional Japanese flower arrangement nestled among leaves or in tropical pools. His basket forms, inspired by native American basket weaving, were right at home in a landscape dominated by cacti, grasses and cycads.

Blue Baskets

Click here to see more...