Lime Green Icicle Tower

Last updated
Lime Green Icicle Tower
Lime Green Icicle Tower.jpg
Artist Dale Chihuly
Year2011 (2011)
Typeglass, steel
Dimensions13.0 m× 2.1 m(42.5 ft× 7 ft)
Location Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Coordinates 42°20′21″N71°05′39″W / 42.339167°N 71.094167°W / 42.339167; -71.094167
Owner Museum of Fine Arts

Lime Green Icicle Tower is a 2011 glass and steel sculpture by American artist Dale Chihuly. Housed in the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston, Massachusetts, it has been on display in the Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Family Courtyard since the 2011 exhibit "Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass". The sculpture proved so popular during the exhibit that the museum launched a fundraising campaign to purchase the piece.

Contents

Artist

Chihuly, a Seattle-based artist, has been described as the greatest glass artist since Louis Comfort Tiffany. [1] [2] Due to a car accident that left him blind in one eye, Chihuly is unable to blow the glass himself. Instead he uses a team of glassblowers from around the world to create his artwork using traditional glassblowing methods. After molten glass is shaped using a blowpipe, Chihuly adds color to the glass while it's still hot. The glass is then reheated, reshaped, and cooled. [1]

Design

Working with his team of glassblowers, Chihuly designed Lime Green Icicle Tower specifically for the Shapiro courtyard. [3] [2] The artwork, which measures 42.5 feet (13.0 m) high and 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, features 2,342 pieces of blown glass and weighs approximately 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg). [4] [5] Andrea Shea of WBUR-FM described the color of the sculpture as Kermit the Frog. [6] Journalist John O'Rourke of Boston University described Lime Green Icicle Tower as an "exotic, neon-hued palm tree that has taken root in a giant greenhouse" while Judith H. Dobrzynski of The Wall Street Journal described it as a "cross between a cactus and a poplar tree." [1] [7] Although Sebastian Smee, Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for The Boston Globe , is not a fan of Chihuly's work in general, he praised the sculpture. Smee stated: "I defy anyone not to like it" and the sculpture is "so good it's hard to imagine that Malcolm Rogers, the MFA's director, will not find a way to keep it there long term." [8] [9]

Exhibit and acquisition

Between April and August 2011, "Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass", a collection of Chihuly's work spanning 40 years, was exhibited at the MFA. [3] [2] Approximately 350,000 people viewed the exhibit, the fifth largest attendance ever for an MFA exhibit. [7] Lime Green Icicle Tower was so popular during the exhibit that attendees inquired if the museum would purchase the sculpture. Senior curator of the exhibit, Gerald Ward, said: "Pretty much from day one, people almost invariably ask, 'Does this stay, is it permanent, can we keep it here?' It's met with universal acceptance and people are anxious to have it stay." [8] Museum officials told the public they would need to contribute funds in order for the artwork to stay. [5] [10] Director Malcolm Rogers said funds budgeted for museum acquisitions would not be used to purchase the sculpture, stating: "We're offering people an opportunity to play an active role in our future, sending the message that people can make a difference." [7] On July 18, museum staff placed a contribution box by the sculpture and contacted museum members asking for donations. The following week, the museum set up its first mobile contribution program, allowing the public to give $10 by texting "TOWER". [7] The museum also set up its first website where people could contribute funds online. [8]

The fundraising drive was only the third time the MFA had made such a public appeal to purchase artwork. [5] The previous times were in 1940, to purchase Paul Revere's silver liberty bowl, and 1979–1980, to purchase Gilbert Stuart's portraits of George and Martha Washington. Both of those fundraising drives were successful. [5] In October 2011, museum officials announced they had raised the more than $1 million needed to purchase the sculpture. [10] According to museum officials, "thousands of gifts, small and large, were given by first-time visitors and long-time friends, ranging from piggy-bank savings brought in by children to checks written by adults." [6] An estimated 1,000 people put money into the contribution box or mailed cash to the museum. Additional funds were raised by major museum patrons and foundations, the largest being from a foundation belonging to businessman Donald Saunders and his ex-wife, award-winning actress Liv Ullmann. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dale Chihuly</span> American glass sculptor and entrepreneur

Dale Chihuly is an American glass artist and entrepreneur. He is well known in the field of blown glass, "moving it into the realm of large-scale sculpture".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Museum of Fine Arts, Boston</span> Art museum in Massachusetts, United States of America

The Museum of Fine Arts is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas. With more than 1.2 million visitors a year, it is the 79th–most visited art museum in the world as of 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tacoma Art Museum</span> Art museum in Tacoma, Washington

The Tacoma Art Museum (TAM) is an art museum in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It focuses primarily on the art and artists from the Pacific Northwest and broader western region of the U.S. Founded in 1935, the museum has strong roots in the community and anchors the university and museum district in downtown Tacoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Children's Museum of Indianapolis</span> Childrens museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis is the world's largest children's museum. It is located at 3000 North Meridian Street, Indianapolis, Indiana in the United Northwest Area neighborhood of the city. The museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. It is 472,900 square feet (43,933.85 m2) with five floors of exhibit halls and receives more than one million visitors annually. Its collection of over 130,000 artifacts and exhibit items is divided into two domains: Arts & Humanities and the Natural Sciences. Among the exhibits are simulated Cretaceous and Jurassic dinosaur habitats, a carousel, a steam locomotive, and the glass sculpture Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling. The museum's focus is family learning; most exhibits are designed to be interactive, allowing children and families to actively participate.

<i>Appeal to the Great Spirit</i> Equestrian statue by Cyrus Dallin in Boston, Massachusetts, US

Appeal to the Great Spirit is a 1908 equestrian statue by Cyrus Dallin, located in front of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. It portrays a Native American on horseback facing skyward, his arms spread wide in a spiritual request to the Great Spirit. It was the last of Dallin's four prominent sculptures of Indigenous people known as The Epic of the Indian, which also include A Signal of Peace (1890), The Medicine Man (1899), and Protest of the Sioux (1904).

Josiah McElheny is an artist and sculptor, primarily known for his work with glass blowing and assemblages of glass and mirrored glassed objects. He is a 2006 recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program. He lives and works in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts</span>

The Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts (N/BMFA) was an art museum in Nagoya, Japan, that operated from 1999 to 2018.

Malcolm Austin Rogers, CBE is a British art historian and museum administrator who served as the inaugural Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts, from 1994 through 2015, the longest serving director in the institution's 150-year history. In this role, Rogers raised the status of the museum locally, nationally, and internationally, and brought both extensive popularity and occasional controversy to the museum.

<i>DNA Tower</i>

DNA Tower, a public sculpture by American glass artist Dale Chihuly, is in the Morris Mills Atrium of the VanNuys Medical Science Building, on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), which is near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. It was commissioned for the Indiana University School of Medicine through a gift from an anonymous donor and was dedicated on September 30, 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bridge of Glass</span> Bridge in Tacoma, Washington

The Bridge of Glass is a 500-foot (150 m) pedestrian partially-covered footbridge spanning Interstate 705 in Tacoma, Washington. It was opened in 2002 as a gift to the city. The Bridge of Glass connects the Museum of Glass on the Thea Foss Waterway to the downtown and attractions along Pacific Avenue such as Union Station, Washington State History Museum, and Tacoma Art Museum. Together, these attractions make up an area of Tacoma described as "Museum Row." The Bridge of Glass was designed by Texas architect Arthur Andersson and is decorated with artworks by Dale Chihuly. Chihuly has described the Bridge of Glass as "the gateway that welcomes people to Tacoma." It is accessible and free to the public 24 hours a day, lighting up during the nighttime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glass art</span> Art, substantially or wholly made of glass

Glass art refers to individual works of art that are substantially or wholly made of glass. It ranges in size from monumental works and installation pieces to wall hangings and windows, to works of art made in studios and factories, including glass jewelry and tableware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arts on the Line</span> Greater Boston subway public art program

Arts on the Line was a program devised to bring art into the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) subway stations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Arts on the Line was the first program of its kind in the United States and became the model for similar drives for art across the country. The first twenty artworks were completed in 1985 with a total cost of US$695,000, or one half of one percent of the total construction cost of the Red Line Northwest Extension, of which they were a part.

<i>Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling</i> Blown glass sculpture in Indianapolis

Fireworks of Glass Tower and Ceiling, also known as Fireworks of Glass, is a blown glass sculpture installation in the permanent collection of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States of America. The tower sits on a glass base, a pergola ceiling, and rises through the center of the museum's spiraling ramp system. Created by Dale Chihuly in 2006, it is his second-largest permanently installed glass sculpture. Beneath the tower is an accompanying exhibit that describes the sculpture and the process by which it was made. The tower and pergola ceiling are two distinct accessioned objects in the Children's Museum's collection.

<i>V&A Rotunda Chandelier</i> Glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly

The V&A Rotunda Chandelier is a glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly. It hangs under the glass rotunda at the entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London. Considered to be an artwork as much as a source of light, it was installed in 1999 and then substantially altered and enlarged to its current size in 2001, coinciding with a V&A exhibition of the artist's work.

<i>Homme au bain</i> (painting) 1884 painting by Gustave Caillebotte

Homme au bain is an 1884 oil painting by French Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte.

Ralph Helmick is an American sculptor and public artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kait Rhoads</span>

Kait Rhoads is an American glass artist. She uses traditional Italian techniques as a base to create public art, sculpture, vessels and jewelry. The aquatic realm is the root of much of her work, the result of spending six years on a boat in the Caribbean in her youth. Since moving to the Northwest over two decades ago, her fascination extended from coral colonies to kelp forests. Aquatic life infuses her sculptures with animated forms, sparkling surfaces and faceted exoskeletons. Rhoads volunteers at the Seattle Aquarium, gaining inspiration and information on ocean ecology first hand on a weekly basis.

Craig Stockwell is a visual artist who paints large, colorful, abstract paintings. He served (2013-20) as the Director of the MFA in Visual Arts program at the New Hampshire Institute of Art.

Joey Kirkpatrick is an American glass artist, sculptor, wire artist, and educator. She has taught glassblowing at Pilchuck Glass School. Since the 1970s, her artistic partner has been Flora Mace and their work is co-signed. Kirkpatrick has won numerous awards including honorary fellow by the American Craft Council (2005).

References

  1. 1 2 3 O'Rourke, John (May 31, 2011). "MFA's Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass". BU Today. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 "Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass". Museum of Fine Arts. Archived from the original on December 24, 2011. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Hackett, Regina (April 3, 2011). "His glass menagerie". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Lime Green Icicle Tower". Museum of Fine Arts. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Vogel, Carol (August 5, 2011). "Public Appeal in Boston". The New York Times. p. C23. Archived from the original on November 5, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  6. 1 2 Shea, Andrea (July 26, 2011). "The MFA Will Keep Its Lime Green Icicle Tower". WBUR. Archived from the original on October 26, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Dobrzynski, Judith H. (August 6, 2011). "Want to Help Purchase a Lime Green Icicle Tower?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 Edgers, Geoff (July 26, 2011). "MFA asks glass tower's admirers to help buy it". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 27, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  9. ↑ Smee, Sebastian (April 8, 2011). "Glass spectacular". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 27, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 Shanahan, Mark; Goldstein, Meredith (October 13, 2011). "Green raised for 'Green'". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 27, 2014. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.