Persian Window
Chihuly, Dale, American glass artist, born 1941
1999-2000
blown glass
F. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund and other contributions, 1999

In the spring of 1999 the Delaware Art Museum commissioned internationally renowned artist Dale Chihuly to create a large site-specific work of art for the window facing Kentmere Parkway. Since its first appearance, Persian Window has transformed the Museum’s Upper Lobby into an environment of brilliant color, filtered and reflected light and fluid energy. Due to the singular importance and beauty of the piece and its popularity in Wilmington, the Museum acquired the work for the permanent collection with funds provided by the community at large and other public and private support. Completed in August 2000, the work of art consists of 18 blown glass forms placed on an open architectural structure.

Persian Window is the most recent manifestation of Chihuly’s experimentation with glass forms he first created in 1986, which he Eater termed “Persians.” The Persians began as small pieces of blown glass the artist arranged in tabletop groupings. Chihuly gradually pushed these forms into larger scale, and these, in turn, were configured into more sophisticated groupings of color and form. The scale of the groupings was later expanded to accommodate room-size installations. The inspirational source of the Persians is traced to the intricate designs of Persian Carpets and Byzantine, Venetian and Art Nouveau sources.

Although the intensely colored forms are essentially abstract they seem nature -based, evocative of spiraling forms and growth. The fluid shapes, swirling edges and decorative patterning of the forms in Persian Window suggest monumental floral shapes floating across the Museum’s Upper Lobby, connecting the Museum’s exterior landscape with its interior space.

Chihuly began experimenting with glass in his basement studio in Tacoma, Washington in the mid-1960s. Soon thereafter, he enrolled in Harvey Littleton’s Glass Program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Sculpture Program at the Rhode Island School of Design. A Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant and Fulbright Fellowship enabled him to continue on the island of Murano in Venice, Italy. Here he was introduced to sophisticated glass blowing techniques dating back centuries and to the importance of studio teamwork. His observations in Italy led to future formal explorations in glass and to the development of a collaborative artistic effort known as “Team Chihuly”, the working basis of the Pilchuck Glass School he founded in Seattle in 1971.

Dale Chilhuly is the recipient of numerous awards, including the honor of being named America’s first National Living Treasure in 1992. He has explored the potential of the ancient art of glass blowing, transforming its scope and reputation as an artistic medium worthy of critical acclaim and scholarly attention. He has thwarted traditional expectations of the blown glass medium through intense color and expanded scale and its redefinition as a non-functional medium. For decades, Chihuly’s work has blurred the distinctions between Craft and Art, abstraction and representation.