OKC Museum of Art to celebrate the New Year with the grand reopening of its Chihuly collection
A worker sorts pieces for the ceiling during reinstallation of the Chihuly exhibit at the OKC Museum of Art on Thursday, December 15 , 2011. Photo by David McDaniel, The Oklahoman
From Wednesday’s Life section of The Oklahoman.
OKC Museum of Art to celebrate the New Year with the grand reopening of its Chihuly collection
“Illuminations: Rediscovering the Art of Dale Chihuly” will debut Saturday during downtown Oklahoma City’s Opening Night 2012 Festivities.
An assistant with Chihuly Studio, he carefully studied the exotic, multihued artworks arrayed in front of him and finally slipped the champagne-colored cherub, or putti, under an orange, flowerlike form. The bright spotlight shining through the large citrus-shaded glass piece and the iridescent angel beneath immediately cast a golden reflection on the white walls under the partially reassembled “Oklahoma Persian Ceiling,” one of the highlights of the museum’s prized collection of Dale Chihuly glass art.
The collection of the famed Seattle artist’s glass works is considered one of the most comprehensive in the world, and for the past month, workers have been laboring busily to reinstall the 3,500 pieces by New Year’s Eve. On Saturday night, the museum will celebrate its grand reopening with “Illuminations: Rediscovering the Art of Dale Chihuly.”
“There are little changes and big changes. I think people will be thrilled about the familiarity and stunned at how much it seems to have changed even though it’s the same objects,” said museum President and CEO Glen Gentele.
Sparkling redesign
Considering the exhibit’s dramatic redesign, visitors may well see vibrant art forms that were hidden from view in the previous incarnation.
“Each person will install it differently, so it’s the same pieces … but each time, there’s something different about them. It looks really phenomenal,” said Alison Amick, the museum’s curator of collections, as she watched Holland work out the kaleidoscopic “Persian Ceiling” puzzle on a recent weekday.
“It’s great to have everything cleaned and looked at and put out in a fresh order. These installations are just enlivened,” she added. “They have a sparkling quality to them.”
Elsewhere in the exhibit, museum registrar Erika Katayama donned a headlamp and studied a little owl right down to each shimmering glass feather.
“Dale Chihuly: The Collection” was closed at the beginning of April to make way for the world premiere of the vast “Passages” exhibit of biblical artifacts and manuscripts. Before the glass art was put into storage, each piece was cleaned, inspected, photographed and documented in a new database. Each work was cleaned and analyzed again before it was installed for the third time on the museum’s third floor.
A worker places a glass ball in a boat during reinstallation of the Chihuly exhibit at the OKC Museum of Art on Thursday, December 15 , 2011. Photo by David McDaniel, The Oklahoman
Three-dimensional drama
In 2002, the museum opened its downtown home with “Dale Chihuly: An Inaugural Exhibition.” Through enthusiastic public support and community giving, it bought all 18 installations in 2004.
Renamed “Dale Chihuly: The Collection,” the exhibit was reinstalled on April 1, 2004, after 32 days of extensive set building and preparation. Over the past several months, the museum’s staff has worked with Chihuly Studio to redesign the exhibit.
“We really wanted to create a few punctuations in addition to reorganizing how the show was done and trying to think of it little bit more three-dimensionally,” Gentele said.
Rather than placed against a wall as in the previous layout, the large “Float Boat” and “Ikebana Boat” now sit on a lake of reflective black glass in the middle of a gallery space. People can see the vessels overflowing with colorful glass orbs and forms from all sides.
Viewing portals cut into the gallery walls give a tantalizing sneak peek of the pale purple “Reeds” that jut up from massive logs in even bolder fashion.
“You’ll just be able to see so much more of them, and the experience is just so different and so dramatic. Though it’s an old, familiar work, you really do get a sense of it being something new,” Amick said.
“Illuminations” celebrations
“Chihuly: Northwest,” opening New Year’s Eve at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, recreates the Northwest Room at The Boathouse, glass artist Dale Chihuly’s Seattle studio. Through April 8, the exhibit will feature items from his collection of trade blankets and American Indian-inspired glass.
The grand opening of “Illuminations” will be part of downtown Oklahoma City’s massive Opening Night 2012 festivities. The museum will celebrate from 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday with live jazz from Bruce Benson & Studio B and Maurice Johnson, along with free admission to the galleries with an Opening Night wristband.
Museum members will preview “Illuminations” from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, and the redesigned Chihuly exhibit will open to the public from 8 to 11 p.m.
From 11:30 p.m. to midnight, the museum’s Roof Terrace will host a champagne toast and viewing of the Opening Night fireworks. Tickets are $5 for guests and members, or free to patrons of the Museum Cafe’s annual New Year’s Eve Dinner.
The Chihuly exhibit’s grand reopening also will herald the museum’s 10th anniversary in the Donald W. Reynolds Visual Arts Center. Since the museum’s downtown home opened in 2002 with a special Chihuly show, “Illuminations” will be paired with the temporary exhibit “Chihuly: Northwest.”
“Chihuly: Northwest” will feature glass creations inspired by the American Indian basketry, along with selections from the Chihuly’s large collection of Pendleton trade blankets. On a recent day before Christmas, two Chihuly Studio workers were hanging the blankets from floor to ceiling so that they resembled a giant multi-patterned tapestry.
On view through April 8, “Chihuly: Northwest” will include photographs by Edward S. Curtis from “The North American Indian Portfolio” and samplings of Chihuly’s White series of glass art, too.
“These works haven’t been shown in Oklahoma before … and they’re very different from the type of works that you see in our permanent collection,” Amick said. “So we will have something new for people to see as well.”
ON EXHIBIT
“Illuminations: Rediscovering the Art of Dale Chihuly”
Members preview: 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday.
Public opening: 8 to 11 p.m. Saturday during Opening Night.
Where: Oklahoma City Museum of Art, 415 Couch Drive.
Information: 236-3100 or www.okcmoa.com.
-BAM
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
[...] NewsOK.com (blog) [...]