Chihuly at the V&A - Tapa dura

This work accompanies the first ever exhibition in the UK of the work of the internationally celebrated glass artist, Dale Chihuly. Chihuly's glass is richly-coloured, extravagantly formed and enormously varied - ranging from chandeliers to spears, "Seaforms" to "Macchias", renowned for their organic subtlety and textural refinement. His work, which owes much to the grand tradition of Venetian glass, is put into historical context and his importance in introducing the Venetian style to America is also explored. Both the exhibition - the first full-scale installation by the Seattle artist to be shown in Britain - and the books show the enormous variety of glass forms that comprise Chihuly's work as it has developed since the early 1970s. His glass is technically and sculpturally ambitious on a scale unmatched by any other maker. Drawing on the Museum's historic Renaissance collections and expertise, the book also explores the development of the traditional Venetian glass workshop and Chihuly's enormous influence in introducing Venetian glass-makers to the USA. It includes a brief resume of his career and an assessment of his art and its significance. The specially taken colour photographs do full justice to Chihuly's work which has become a by-word for all that is spectacular and exciting in contemporary glass.

Jennifer Hawkins Opie is a Deputy Curator in the Department of Ceramics and Glass at the Victoria and Albert Museum, specialising in the 19th and 20th centuries and in contemporary work, glass in particular. She has worked on many V&A exhibitions, most recently Art Nouvean 1890-1914 and was a contributor to the accompanying book edited by Paul Greenhalgh (V&A Publications, 2000). She is the author of Scandinavia, Ceramics and Glass (V&A Publications, reissued 2001). She is curator of the V&A's Chihuly exhibition.