Dale Chihuly’s Putti series was developed in 1989 while Pino Signoretto, one of the greatest Italian masters of massiccio (solid glass sculpture), was a visiting artist at Pilchuck Glass School. Ever the collaborator, Chihuly worked with Signoretto to add cherubs, angels, and cupid figures to his elegant Venetian forms. The result represented Chihuly’s first use of the human figure in his work and, by the mid-2000s, grew to include sea creatures, shells, and dolphins, creating mischievous narratives. The Putti vessels, sometimes as large as four feet tall, typically involved large teams of up to ten artists working together. Much like Chihuly’s many other collaborative and creative series, the Putti are a perfect melding of traditional glass practices and contemporary techniques and designs. Equal parts charming to behold, imposing in size, and technically brilliant, they are beloved by collectors worldwide.
Take a walk through center city Philadelphia, you’ll find evidence of Jane Korman’s vision all around you: on Arch Street, the innovative textile studios and galleries at the Fabric Workshop and Museum will be abuzz with creativity, with thought-provoking exhibitions on view. On Walnut Street, you’ll pass the Jane & Leonard Korman Respiratory Institute at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital—an initiative inspired by her own experience as a lung cancer patient who never took the ability to breathe for granted. Each November at the nearby Pennsylvania Convention Center, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Contemporary Craft Show welcomes thousands of eager shoppers whose purchases support both the livelihoods of the artists displaying their work, and the Museum’s ability to acquire important works of contemporary craft. Korman was a longtime supporter and member of the Board of Directors of this annual event through the Women’s Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where she also served on the Modern and Contemporary Art Committee. And if you venture a bit further afield to the northwest corner of the city, you’ll reach the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania, where Korman was a Trustee and chair of the Fine Arts Committee. There, she spearheaded the creation of a permanent installation for children called Out on a Limb: A Tree Adventure Exhibit, complete with a nest of giant robin’s eggs and a Squirrel Scramble. It was designed as a fully accessible place for children and adults to explore and revel in nature, and to help them see that “we need trees, and trees need us.”
These efforts have something important in common...for Jane Korman, art, life and nature were not separate entities, but deeply intertwined facets of a life well lived.
These efforts have something important in common: breathing deeply and enjoying nature in every season, celebrating art and creativity in all its forms, and sharing the wonder of exquisite craftsmanship with the historic city she loved, all demonstrating that for Jane Korman, art, life and nature were not separate entities, but deeply intertwined facets of a life well lived. The diversity and exceptional quality of the works of art in this important sale speak to this sense of interconnectedness, and reflect her eye for idiosyncratic beauty and adventurous form. From the playful wit of Judy Kensley McKie’s furniture to the trompe-l'œil everyday objects created in clay by Marilyn Levine, Korman’s collection demonstrates reverence for material mastery, an appreciation for originality and non-traditional forms, and enjoyment of the unpretentious humor that animates craft’s whimsical side. It also offers proof of her artistic foresight: McKie’s Table With Dogs was featured in the American Craft Council’s exhibition New Handmade Furniture: American Furniture Makers Working in Hardwood back in 1979.
She believed that like food and nature, works of art, craft and design are part of our shared feast, and should be enjoyed, not tucked away for “someday.”
Korman was well known as a connoisseur and philanthropist, but she was also a gallery owner and published author. Her 2010 book Splendid Settings: The Art + Craft of Entertaining captured the spirit of her much-beloved collection. On the cover, a bouquet of peonies keeps company with a pair of elegant champagne flutes and three brilliantly glazed works by Toshiko Takaezu; this could only be Jane Korman’s table. Born in Philadelphia, she earned a BA in fine arts from Arcadia University, married Leonard Korman in 1957, and they raised three daughters together. In 1977, she established a gallery dedicated to contemporary American craft called Sign of the Swan in Philadelphia’s Chestnut Hill neighborhood. She later opened Swan Gallery near Rittenhouse Square, overseeing both spaces until 1989. Her passion for craft and expertise only grew as she became a trustee of the American Craft Council, and the Museum of Arts and Design, both located in New York, among other organizations. Splendid Settings explains how her varied passions overlapped: nearly 70 recipes, both her own and those shared from friends and artists, are presented against the vibrant backdrop of tables featuring Korman’s collections. She believed that like food and nature, works of art, craft and design are part of our shared feast, and should be enjoyed, not tucked away for “someday.”
To build a collection that encompasses works from such a wide array of genres, time periods, and materials suggests that Korman was inspired by something akin to artistic hospitality. Her collection includes quite a few greats: delicate vessels by George Ohr, vibrant and modern forms by Lucie Rie and Ruth Duckworth, and luminous Toots Zynsky bowls that seem to radiate color and light from their fused glass threads. Rudy Autio’s Blue Horse and Rider shows a woman clinging to the side of a vessel as though it were a wild steed, linking the two distinct forms of pottery and sculpture as though they couldn’t live without one another. Also striking is the number of works obtained directly from the artist, or even commissioned specifically for the Kormans, like Wendell Castle’s sculptural sets of dining tables and chairs.
Jane Korman admired beauty, but didn’t insist on a narrow definition of it.
Jane Korman admired beauty, but didn’t insist on a narrow definition of it. She felt a kinship with artists, being one herself, and understood them through a shared language. Many of the works in her collection are straightforwardly lovely, like Wayne Higby’s serene Landscape Bowl from 1980 or Harvey Littleton’s nearly-edible Ruby Sliced Descending Form from 1985. Others possess a kind of rugged beauty that can only be truly appreciated with an understanding of artistic intent and preternatural skill. Observers might have glanced at Marilyn Levine’s 1984 KCP Bag and seen an ordinary useful object—sturdy, but worn a bit past its prime. Jane Korman saw Levine’s artistic devotion to capturing the contours and details of a personal item freighted with meaning, something that deserved to be realized through careful attention and virtuosic skill. Like nature, artistic inspiration takes infinite forms, and what strikes most people as traditionally beautiful represents just a narrow band of human creative endeavor. As long as a work of art was a triumph of technique, keenly observed, and authentically inspired, it was welcome at Jane Korman’s table.
Sarah Archer is a design writer based in Philadelphia who has authored several books and contributed essays to exhibition catalogs for the Print Center New York, the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Portland Art Museum, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, and the Museum of Arts and Design. She served as senior curator at the Philadelphia Art Alliance from 2011 through 2014 and was the 2017 Jentel Visiting Critic at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana.
Dale Chihuly b. 1941
American glass sculptor and entrepreneur Dale Chihuly is among the most well-regarded glass artists of the 20th and 21st Century.
Dale Chihuly’s academic career began at the University of Washington where he earned a BA in Interior Design in 1965. He then went on to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied under Harvey Littleton, founder of the first formal glass program in the United States. He graduated in 1967 with a Master of Science in Sculpture before moving on to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he received a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture in 1968. He would later return to RISD to establish a glass program and teach for many years.
After earning his third degree, Chihuly sojourned in Venice where he worked in the factory of Paolo Venini, a key architect of the 20th century design aesthetic and one of the leading producers of mid-century Murano glass. It was in Venini’s studio on the island of Murano that Chihuly first witnessed the team approach to blowing glass, a practice that would become an integral part of his work in the years to come. Though he returned to the United States to teach, Chihuly continued to travel the world to meet and learn from like-minded artists.
In 1976, Chihuly was involved in an auto accident that resulted in the loss of his left eye, greatly limiting his sense of visual depth. Chihuly’s ability to create was further impaired by a bodysurfing accident in 1979 that left him unable to hold the glassblowing pipe. The injuries sustained in these two incidents forced Chihuly to hire others to assist. In a 2006 interview Chihuly explained, "Once I stepped back, I liked the view." This new perspective allowed Chihuly to anticipate problems sooner and work more efficiently. Additionally, working with a team of master glassblowers enabled Chihuly’s studio to produce glass art on a scale and quantity that would be inconceivable for a single artist working alone.
Though Chihuly has worked in multiple mediums including charcoal, acrylic, and graphite, it is his large and vibrantly colored glass sculptures and installations for which he is best known. These include his “Seafoam Series,” of thin, wavy translucent glass forms sporting bold bands and splashes of color, his “Ikebana Series” of naturally inspired ‘glass flowers,’ and his series of massive and stunningly intricate chandeliers.
Auction Results Dale Chihuly
