Art in the Ozarks: Chihuly at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

The collection at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art spans five centuries, exploring the evolution of artists from ancient to contemporary. Chihuly’s 2017 exhibition at the museum spanned five decades of his own evolution, demonstrating that the artist himself carries on a long tradition of American artists breaking new creative ground.

Even 50 years into Chihuly’s career, his exhibition at Crystal Bridges, Chihuly: In the Gallery and In the Forest, was a series of firsts. It was the first exhibition he had presented in both indoor and outdoor spaces, the museum debut of two new bodies of work, and the first time the fused glass weaving he created at the University of Washington while studying under influential art professor Doris Brockway had been exhibited. The weaving and the brand-new bodies of work bookended a half century of groundbreaking work at the time.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Crystal Bridges is renowned for its collection of works by celebrated American artists including Georgia O’Keeffe, Jeffrey Gibson, Robert Indiana, Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Romare Bearden, and Maya Lin.

Founders envisioned the museum as an accessible location in the Ozarks where the public could experience world-class art and architecture alongside nature, free of charge. Chihuly felt honored to be invited to present his work at an acclaimed institution that so closely reflected his own passions: nature, architecture, and bringing art to the public. The exhibition provided a natural opportunity to dig deep into Chihuly’s early series and debut two of his two new ones: Rotolo and Glass on Glass.
 

Rotolo

“Rotolo rekindled my excitement for working with clear glass. I was really amazed by the complexity and brilliance of the form, which started from a simple coil,” Chihuly remarked while developing the series. Weighing up to 140 pounds, these technically challenging works feature a heavy base and intricate, upstretched coils.

Chihuly had previously only shown Rotolo at Seattle’s Traver Gallery in 2013. He kept the works on limited view, waiting for the right moment for their museum debut. When he showed them to the Crystal Bridges team, their excitement proved that the exhibition was that right moment.
 

Glass on Glass

Like Rotolo, Chihuly had only presented his new series, Glass on Glass, on a limited basis. Visitors and patients at the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center in Omaha were the first to experience these new two-dimensional works when finding respite in the Chihuly Sanctuary. Opened in 2017, the sanctuary brings color, serenity, and comfort to patients and their families.

Glass on Glass comprises glass panels that are painted with vitreous-glass enamel, then layered atop one another to create a single unified composition. Viewers experience how its illuminated drawings shift in depth and dimension when viewed from different angles.

Rotolo and Glass on Glass joined 12 of Chihuly’s other bodies of work for this major exhibition inside the Museum’s quiet galleries and alongside its woodland trail. The Neon, Drawings, Cylinders, Floats, Fiori, Venetians, Boats, Baskets, Persians, and more proved so popular with visitors that the museum acquired five new installations, including the instantly recognizable, site-specific Azure Icicle Chandelier. To get a closer look at the exhibition and the work behind it, check out the video below: