Dale Chihuly talks about his love of the desert, Frank Lloyd Wright and new exhibitions

It's a project four years in the making. 

Dale Chihuly always loved the desert. His first show at Phoenix's Desert Botanical Garden in 2013 was just one example of his love of Arizona's sunrises, sunsets and the saguaro cactus, Chihuly told The Arizona Republic on Thursday — just one day before "Chihuly in the Desert'" opened to the public. 

The show — a joint exhibition at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West and the Desert Botanical Garden —  is open until June 19, 2022. This is the first time Chihuly has displayed his work alongside a Wright building that is open to the public. 

To install six pieces at the late Wright's Arizona home is "a dream come true" for Chihuly, who said Wright heavily inspired his work. 

"I've always loved him," Chihuly said.

Chihuly in the desert:Dale Chihuly's glass masterpieces are coming to metro Phoenix. Here's where to see them

40 years of Chihuly in the desert

Chihuly first showed his work in Arizona at the Phoenix Art Museum and the Tucson Museum of Art in 1982. Chihuly soon rose to international prominence. His work is in more than 200 museums worldwide and his shows have reached Venice, Jerusalem and Singapore to name a few. But he kept coming back to the Arizona desert. 

After returning to the Phoenix Art Museum in 2002 and the Desert Botanical Garden in both 2008 and 2013, Chihuly wanted to come back yet again. This time, to Taliesin West.  

"I've always loved the desert so an opportunity to exhibit here, I took every chance I could to do it," Chihuly said. 

Conversations started in 2017 when Chihuly and his studio team met with Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation president Stuart Graff.  There had never been an art exhibition like this one, Graff told The Republic. It seemed impossible. 

"He came and said, 'Can you make this happen?' And I at first said, 'There's no way to be able to do this,'" Graff said. "We weren't ready. We didn't have people with the right skills. We didn't have the right infrastructure to make this happen." 

So began four years of preparing Taliesin for the arrival of Chihuly's work. Sketches began traveling between Washington and Arizona. In 2019, the Frank Lloyd Wright team visited Chihuly Studios in Seattle. 

How the restorations lined up with Chihuly's work

Soon, the foundation began restoring the home to its pre-1959 appearance. The Foundation was undertaking a variety of preservation projects, but two things were particularly relevant to the Chihuly exhibition.

The base of the fountains and pools in front of the home were restored to the simple concrete Wright had originally selected. His wife changed the color to swimming pool blue after his death.

The Garden Room's upholstery was restored to the blue, reds and pale yellow color palette Wright had chosen to match the Chinese Screen within the dining cove. Those two restorations impact how visitors see the sculptures.

"This is the first exhibition of its kind in our history," Graff said. "Now to be able to give to an artist who's given us so much, to give him the gift of making one of his dreams happen, all of us feel so blessed to be able to do that."  

How Chihuly's works complement Taliesin West

Chihuly's work complements the Wright house in every way, Graff said. For example, the gold and white Alabaster and Spire Towers match the shade panels of the drafting studio and the office. 

"Dale had seen the gold in there," Graff said, "and somehow I'd missed that. And then I started seeing all the things that Dale saw that I didn't see. That's the moment that I knew this was the perfect combination. To me, it seems like these sculptures should have always been here. They're an intrinsic part of the place." 

Just as Wright deliberately designed his home to frame a view of the desert mountainscape, so Chihuly's Golden Celadon Baskets picks up the light from the colors within Wright's Garden Room to point viewers back to nature.

"The baskets become part of the room which becomes part of the landscape," Graff said. "When the art isn't merely present near the building but becomes an integral part of the landscape, a part of the connection, then some amazing things happen." 

Though Chihuly won't disclose his favorite installation, he said, his hope for those who visit the exhibit is simple. 

"I hope they see something exciting, beautiful, and important," Chihuly said. "Something that they've never seen before." 

Here's what you can see at Taliesin West

Alabaster and Amber Spire Towers at the Entry Plaza: The first things you see when you begin touring the exhibition, these gold and white towers model the gold and white shaded panels of the estate's drafting studio and office. 

Red Reeds & Niijima Floats: The reeds originated during Chihuly's experimentation in Nuutajärvi, Finland and are among the most dramatic blown glass forms. The floats, named after the island of Niijima in Tokyo Bay — as well as the small Japanese fishing floats Chihuly found on the shores of Puget Sound as a child — are some of the largest glass spheres blown (up to 40 inches in diameter and up to 60 pounds). 

Black Saguaros and Scarlet Icicles: This type of composition is what Chihuly calls, "Mille Fiori," Italian for "a thousand flowers." These works integrate several standalone forms into one cohesive project — and model Chihuly's favorite thing about the desert: The Saguaro cactus. 

Golden Celadon Baskets in the Garden Room: Chihuly's basket series began in 1977 to model those of indigenous artists, Graff said. Though his original Baskets were in more subdued earth tones, Chihuly has brought back a new series with brighter, more exuberant yellows, blues and reds. 

Fire Amber Herons at the Tower Pool: Walk to the pools and see the herons reflect in the pool, a result of the foundation's restoration of the pool's base to the concrete color Wright had originally selected.

Citron Tower at the Garden Squares: This golden blue tower sits at the center of the Taliesin West's Garden Plaza. The Tower models Chihuly's experimentation with "Chandeliers" that culminated in the "Chihuly Over Venice" project in 1995 and 1996. ​​​​​

How to see 'Chihuly in the Desert'

When: Dec. 3-June 19, 2022.

Where: Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 N. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, and Taliesin West, 12621 N. Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd., Scottsdale.

Admission:Separate admission required at each location, advance reservations recommended. $25-$49. Reservations required at both locations.

Details: 480-941-1225, dbg.org. 480-860-2700, franklloydwright.org/taliesin-west, www.chihulyinthedesert.org.

Reach the reporter at sofia.krusmark@gannett.com. Follow her on Instagram @sofia.krusmark.

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