Seafoam+and+Amber-Tipped+Chandelier

Date: 1994
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2012/2012.54A-B_1a.jpg&max=460 width="244" height="363" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=84729"]] || Title: **Seafoam and Amber-Tipped Chandelier**

Artist: **Dale Chihuly** Born: Tacoma, Washington 1941

Medium: glass and silver leaf Dimensions: approx.: 96 x 60 x 60 in. (243.8 x 152.4 x 152.4 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel © 1994, Chihuly Studio. All rights reserved. Photo by Ron Blunt

Accession: 2012.54A-B || //Seafoam and Amber-Tipped Chandelier// is one of Chihuly’s earliest chandeliers. It is not lit from within, and each individual glass piece is attached to a metal armature.
 * About the Artwork: **

Rhythmic repetition is characteristic of the artist’s //Chandeliers// series, which he began in 1992. Donald Kuspit writes that these works cause “delirious vertigo,” similar to “fresh realizations of Kandinsky’s notion of improvised musical composition” (//Chihuly//, 40). Kuspit associates the appearance of works like //Seafoam and Amber-Tipped Chandelier// with Chihuly’s “buoyant, resilient spirit.” The writer further discusses how the artist’s chandeliers have become a social commentary or a part of their respective installation. Hung in forests, castles, and private homes the chandeliers complement these natural and man-made environments (Chihuly, 45-46).

Chihuly’s works are admired for creating lush colors that Jack Cowart describes as “luminist.” Cowart continues that “[Chihuly] uses glass as a literal and metaphorical prism through which he projects both ambient and intense theatrical light to produce sublime, luminous effects.” Traditionally in art history such use of light relates to themes of otherworldly or divine presence. In the artist’s work light and color often inspire the viewer to ponder abstract expressions (Chihuly, 26-28). Joan Seeman Robinson associates Chihuly’s seaforms with the primal impulses and the Surrealists’ automatic drawings and paintings. The water lilies by Claude Monet, Robinson also references as an antecedent to Chihuly’s work. Glass, a beautiful yet fragile material, evokes pathos, loss, and also tranquility (Chihuly Seaforms, 92-96).
 * About the Artist: **

The sea, coral reefs, and sea creature-like forms are other themes common to Chihuly’s pieces. The sea is also an ancient symbol of self-immersion (//Chihuly//, 43). He first experienced the sea as a child living near Seattle. Later Chihuly explored the New England shore and ocean sites worldwide (//Chihuly Seaforms//, 4-7).

The artist is also credited with eliminating, or blending, the categories of craft and art (//Chihuly//, 30).

Sources: Kuspit, Donald B. with an introduction by Jack Cowart. //Dale Chihuly// (Seattle: Portland Press, 1998). Robinson, Joan. Seeman “Chihuly Seaforms.” in //Chihuly Seaforms// (Seattle: Portland Press, 1995), 92-96. Earle, Sylvia. “Chihuly and the Sea” in //Chihuly Seaforms// (Seattle: Portland Press, 1995), 4-7.


 * Resources: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page
 * Links: **