Pilchuck Glass School and Chateau Ste. Michelle Announce Richard Marquis to Receive Libenský Award

Seattle, WA – Pilchuck Glass School and Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery announce the selection of Richard Marquis as the ninth recipient of the Libenský Award. Marquis’s artwork will adorn bottles of Chateau Ste. Michelle 2001 Artist Series Meritage scheduled for release this summer. He will receive the award during a black-tie vintner’s dinner benefiting Pilchuck Glass School at Chateau Ste. Michelle winery in Woodinville on Friday, June 25.

Chateau Ste. Michelle’s Artist Series Meritage pays tribute to great glass masters by showcasing their artwork on the labels. The marriage of Pacific Northwest wine and contemporary glass art began with the 1993 vintage, released in 1996, with a label featuring work by Dale Chihuly. The following year the winery and Pilchuck Glass School established the Libenský Award to honor the individuals featured on the winery’s Artist Series collection. Award recipients are selected on the basis of their significant contributions to the American Studio Glass movement. Previous honorees include William Morris, Lino Tagliapietra, Ginny Ruffner, Dan Dailey, Flora Mace and Joey Kirkpatrick, Stanislav Libenský (1921-2002) and Jaroslava Brychtová, and Italo Scanga (1932-2001).

These former honorees unanimously selected Marquis to receive this year’s Libenský Award and to be the featured artist for the 2001 vintage. Marquis, a highly regarded pioneer of the American Studio Glass movement, mixes mastery of the medium with energy, an abundant love of color, a healthy dose of iconoclasm, and unending curiosity. Colorful and boldly shaped teapots are among his most readily recognized works. Born in Arizona, raised and educated in California, Marquis was one of the first American artists to work in the fabled Venini studio in Venice, Italy, where he traveled after receiving a coveted Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship. Marquis moved to the Puget Sound region in 1982.

Constantly contributing to the dialogue about glass, he has taught at the University of Washington, the University of California at Berkeley and at Los Angeles, Pilchuck Glass School, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, and the Tasmanian School of Art in Australia, among others. His work is held by the Museum of Arts in Design (New York), the Racine Art Museum (Wisconsin), the Corning Museum of Glass (Corning), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Seattle Art Museum.

Originally founded in 1934, Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery pioneered vinifera grape growing in Washington state and has been producing classic European varietal wines under the Chateau Ste. Michelle label since 1967. The winery combines an ongoing dedication to research with a commitment to classic winemaking traditions. Known for its highly acclaimed Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet, Chateau Ste. Michelle receives some of the highest accolades in the industry, including “winery of the year” honors from Wine & Spirits magazine nine times.

Dale Chihuly, with the support of patrons Anne Gould Hauberg and John H. Hauberg (1916-2002), founded Pilchuck Glass School in 1971. Chihuly envisioned a retreat that would offer artists an opportunity to work with and learn about glass. Amid the spectacular beauty of the Pacific Northwest, Chihuly’s vision became a shared reality for thousands of artists and patrons throughout the world. In just thirty years, Pilchuck has become the largest and most comprehensive international educational center for artists working in glass.

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