Dale Chihuly is the most famous and influential artist working in glass today. A career-spanning biographical essay by curator Timothy Anglin Burgard and stunning colour photography of the works will captivate Chihuly's myriad fans - both old and new.

Dale Chihuly's obsession with color and his insatiable desire to experiment inspired his Macchia (Italian for spot or stain) series. 'Chihuly alla Macchia' traces its development from the first small, oddly shaped, grotesquely coloured vessels, dubbed the 'uglies' by Chihuly's forthright mother when they began in 1981, to the recent flamboyant and exuberantly hued Macchia. This book reproduces in full-colour the 39 glass works and 15 drawings included in the 1993 exhibition of the George R Stroemple collection. The book is not, however, merely an exhibition catalogue. Through the extensive use of close-up details, it offers the reader a chance to experience the glasswork in an intimate manner. The book also includes the essay, 'Reflections on Macchia', by Robert Hobbs, as well as an exhibition checklist and a chronology.

Dale Chihuly is arguably the best known glass artist in the world. Each title in the 'Chihuly Mini Book' series takes readers on a visual tour of Chihuly's work, exploring what makes each of his genres unique.

As we look back at a career over fifty years and counting, we realize that Dale Chihuly's five best- known series"€"the Baskets, Seaforms, Macchia, Persians, and the Venetians"€"which were created sequentially in rapid succession over a nine-year period from 1977 through 1986"€"were the ones that really defined his aesthetic and effected the most dramatic change in the centuries-old medium of glass. In recognition of the importance of these five series, Chihuly Workshop has chosen to reissue in this single-volume format, essays on these bodies of work that were initially part of a multi-volume edition published in 2009 and 2010. The texts have been updated slightly with some fresh observations about how this modern master continues to grow and refine his aesthetic and impact the art of today.

This book chronicles four decades of Dale Chihuly's work on paper, a dynamic collection that is a fascinating study of variety. Many of the drawings are drenched in thick, bold layers of colour. Others are more elusive -- just a hint of form sketched with a fistful of pencils or a confidently manipulated charcoal. Over the years his style has evolved, becoming more abstract and more elaborate, and his drawings, in some cases, have become much larger. But there are no rules; a technique that Chihuly favoured a decade before may resurface again. The excitement of Chihuly's work on paper is in its unpredictability, and that in two dimensions Chihuly is free to let his grandest schemes come to fruition. Above all, Chihuly's work on paper revels in the monumental creativity that is essentially Chihuly.

Features the artist's glass sculptures from "The Garden Cycle" exhibition that were displayed in prominent conservatories and gardens around the world.

Artforum art critic Joan Seeman Robinson discusses Chihuly's most exquisite and ethereal series, invoking the spontaneous automatic drawings of the Surrealists, the water lilies of Claude Monet, the action painting of Jackson Pollock, and, most cogently, Henri Matisse's Swimming Pool. Oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle, former Chief Scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, finds in Chihuly's evocative 'Seaforms' not only 'reflections of skill, passion, teamwork and sheer genius' but also 'tributes' to the sea. Together these writers help to illuminate what many consider Chihuly's quintessential series, which was begun in 1980. The saturated colour of the 40 full-colour pages, including many double-page spreads, conveys the sensuousness of Chihuly's work.