Art Of Glass Dale Chihuly’s Glass Sculptures Commissioned For Jundt
Almost overnight, Gonzaga University’s Jundt Art Museum has acquired an important Dale Chihuly glass art collection.
A total of 37 pieces of Chihuly art, specially commissioned for the Jundt Art Museum, arrived at Gonzaga during Christmas break. About 15 have already been installed in the museum’s rotunda. These pieces join the 18-foot-long flame-colored Chihuly chandelier that has dominated the museum’s rotunda since its dedication in 1995.
“We’ve been informed that we have now made the list of major Chihuly installations,” said Midge Collins, the Jundt’s assistant curator and acting director. “We’re on the map.”
Chihuly is Seattle’s flamboyant, eye-patched pioneer of contemporary glass art, with works in collections all over the world, including the Louvre.
Nobody at Gonzaga is willing to estimate how much the Jundt’s new Chihuly collection is worth, but it is not uncommon for a single Chihuly piece to sell for upwards of $30,000. Any way you measure it, the collection is an extraordinarily generous gift from four Gonzaga patrons.
All of the Chihuly pieces were commissioned for Gonzaga in 1995 by Jim and Joan Jundt, and Duff and Dorothy Kennedy. Duff Kennedy is the president of the financial firm Kennedy Associates of Seattle and is a former Gonzaga chairman of the board; Jundt is the chairman of Minneapolis’ Jundt Associates and is Gonzaga’s current chairman of the board.
“They just felt that Spokane and Gonzaga and this particular facility deserved a collection of this caliber,” said Collins.
Included in the gift are examples from each of Chihuly’s major forms: cylinders, baskets, sea-forms, macchia, Persians, Venetians and floats. In addition, eight Chihuly drawings and paintings are included. All were created from 1989 through 1996. Three of the pieces have been installed in the university president’s office and two have been installed in the chancellor’s office.
The 15 pieces now on display in the rotunda include five drawings and 10 glass works. The titles of some of the pieces sound like pure poetry: “Magenta Soft Cylinder with Chartreuse Lip Wrap” and “Dragon Red Venetian with Damsel Green Coils.”
These pieces will be on display until sometime in May, when they will replaced by some of the other pieces now in storage. The collection itself is permanent.
Meanwhile, in the main gallery, the Jundt is presenting the bilingual touring exhibition, “Las (In)Visibles - Women Artists of Uruguay,” featuring paintings, watercolors, photos and prints. Also, the photographs of Parisian photographer Robert Doisneau are now on display in the museum’s Arcade Gallery, along with selections from the museum’s Rodin sculpture collection.
All exhibits, including the Chihuly exhibit, are free and open to the public. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. The museum will be closed Jan. 18-20 and Feb. 15-17 in observance of university holidays.
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