Chihuly

mille fiori

I suppose it's too late to tell you to go catch this exhibit, since it's no longer at the DeYoung. So I'll just tell you that it was a wonderful exhibit. They let us take pictures, which made it even more enjoyable. Half the fun was playing with the lighting and shadows and trying to capture that on film. I went up on Friday of closing weekend, several weekends ago. I almost skipped it, since I was tired, but I was really glad I went. I have many more pictures on Picasa, but here are some of the highlights.

What I found really striking about Chihuly's works were the vivid colors and the shapes that seemed to defy glass's rigidity. These are his Persians. They seem to cascade down effortlessly, with grace and poise.

Persians

Then there were the Tabac baskets. They were modeled after baskets made by native Americans from the northwestern coast.

I was mesmerized by the effects of the lighting and shadows. In fact, although this was the least colorful of his works, this was my favorite section. The subdued colors helped bring out the lovely interplay between the different contrasting elements: the luster of the baskets vs. dull the wooden surface, the translucence of the glass objects vs. the opacity of the wood, and the objects themselves vs. their own reflections.

Here is an image of one of his works from the Macchia Forest series. I loved the deep blue hues juxtaposed with the vibrant yellows in this one. I just wish I had a better photo. . .
Then there were the balloons. This one looked like our solar system.And icicles. . .
actually, chandeliers that looked like they came out of the kingdom of Narnia.
Again, note the interplay between the object and its shadows.

And many many more cool objects.