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Silvered Venetian with Cerulean Flowers, 2014, 17 x 17 x 17" Inquire
An eclectic take on classics
An unlikely marriage of formality and unrestrained exuberance, Venetians began as an experiment by Chihuly and Italian maestro glassblower Lino Tagliapietra. At the core of the Venetians is a classical vessel, with wildly flamboyant attachments like snaky handles, leaves, and twisted coils and ribbons.
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“I started the series with the simple idea of replicating these strange Art Deco vases, but I hoped that it would go somewhere else, somewhere bizarre.”
–Chihuly
Martin Blank, Lino Tagliapietra, Chihuly, and Benjamin Moore, Van de Kamp Building, Seattle, 1988
Tradition with a twist
Inspired by Italian glass of the Art Deco period, Chihuly teamed up with Italian maestro glassblower Lino Tagliapietra. He wanted to take traditional methods to another level, seeing what serendipity might come with the addition of free-spirited spontaneity.
Dale Chihuly, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California, 1989
Daydreaming on paper
Chihuly typically drew what he wanted Tagliapietra to create, starting with watercolor and graphite sketches of classical forms with several handles. When he switched to charcoal, the drawings became bolder and the pieces more extreme: “Handles changed to knots, prunts became claws, colors went from subtle to bright, and forms from symmetrical to asymmetrical.”
SEE THE PROCESS: PICCOLO VENETIANS
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