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DECORATIVE ARTS, JEWELRY, CERAMICS, GLASS, TEXTILES

PUBLISHER
MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

BOOK FORMAT
Clth, 10 x 9.5 in. / 160 pgs / 125 color.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Out of print

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2011 p. 176   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780878467648 TRADE
List Price: $50.00 CAD $67.50 GBP £45.00

AVAILABILITY
Not available

TERRITORY
WORLD

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Arts, 04/10/11-08/07/11

THE FALL 2026 ARTBOOK | D.A.P. CATALOG

Artbook | D.A.P. Catalog Cover Link
Preview our FALL 2026 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
  

MFA PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON

Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass

Text by Gerald W.R. Ward.

Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass

Coinciding with a major Chihuly exhibition and the 50th anniversary of the American studio glass movement, this monograph is the first to highlight Chihuly’s use of inhabited and installed spaces, and how they impact his work

Arguably the most famous glass artist since Louis Comfort Tiffany, Dale Chihuly has been credited with elevating blown glass from delicate decorative object to groundbreaking fine art. Chihuly's "Blanket Cylinders," "Seaforms," "Persians" and chandeliers are exhibited and collected throughout the world, and many volumes have been devoted to his bold, complex, fiercely colorful work. Little documented, however, though crucial to an understanding of his art, is the role played by physical space in his overall aesthetic--installation spaces, work spaces, but also spaces for living and for housing his extensive personal collections. Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass focuses on the artist's pieces and installations in relation to the spaces that generate, shape and surround them. The text, a mix of critical exegesis and Chihuly's own commentary (much of it solicited specifically for this book), provides a new entrée into the work, mind, and creative process of one of America's most critically and popularly acclaimed artists.

One of the few contemporary artists who is truly a household name, Dale Chihuly (born 1941) studied interior design and architecture before beginning to experiment with glassblowing. After receiving degrees in sculpture and ceramics, Chihuly worked with master glass craftsmen in Murano, Venice. On returning to the United States, Chihuly established the glass program at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1968 and cofounded the Pilchuck Glass School in 1971. In 1979, after losing an eye, Chihuly ceased to blow glass himself, though he maintains a firm hold on the artistic direction of his studio.

"One night [in 1965] I melted a few pounds of stained glass in one of my kilns and dipped a steel pipe from the basement into it. I blew into the pipe and a bubble of glass appeared. I had never seen glassblowing before. My fascination for it probably comes in part from discovering the process that night by accident. From that moment, I became obsessed with learning all I could about glass."

--Dale Chihuly, excerpted from Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass. Featured image is "Japanese Bridge Chandelier" at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, 2006.

Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass

STATUS: Out of print | 00/00/00

For assistance locating a copy, please see our list of recommended out of print specialists

FROM THE BOOK
"A lot of the work I do is inspired by nature or looks as if it might come from nature, but I don't look at something specific in nature to make a piece. I sort of have a natural feeling for using glass—trying to take advantage of the color and transparency that glass offers. Also, I'm making use of the ability to take this ancient material, which is blown with human breath—this magical material—to some new place."

Dale Chihuly, excerpted from Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass.

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