Orbit
Artist: Daniel Owen Dailey (American, born 1947)
Date: 1987
Dimensions:
H: 8 ft.; L: 16 ft.
Medium: Glass, sand-cast in iron form, sand-blasted, acid-polished; paint on theater cloth, stretched over board
Classification: Glass
Credit Line: Gift of Tishman Speyer Properties
Object number: 2015.35
Label Text:Panel 1:
Orbit expresses a spirit of celebration and exploration that spurs a sense of wonder. Look closely and you’ll notice that the 120 cast glass panels depict a spectrum of images suspended in a celestial setting. Icons of art history such as the so-called Venus of Willendorf and a Picasso Bull sculpture float with an astronaut, spaceships, shooting stars, and various planets. Disparate figures rooted in human curiosity are brought together in enigmatic combination.
Dan Dailey (American, born 1947) is a pioneering figure in American studio glass who continues to push the expressive potential of the medium forward. Emphasizing the role of light in his sculptural works, Dailey blends fantasy with the reality of everyday experience to create images that capture often whimsical thoughts, feelings, and moods about the human condition.
Panel 2:
A dynamic, lighted mural that playfully explores the thrill of curiosity, Orbit was commissioned in 1986 for the famous Rainbow Room restaurant and bar on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Orbit was mounted above the bandstand and acted as the backdrop for the revolving dance floor. The theatrical mural created an alluring stage for the festive entertainment space.
In 2009, the Rainbow Room was gutted and remodeled by a new tenant. The mural’s original lighting scheme and steel frame were discarded and the panels stored. The owner of Rockefeller Plaza, Tishman Speyer Properties, donated the glass mural to the Toledo Museum of Art in 2015.
Orbit is once again an engulfing backdrop, but now the mural literally sheds new light on the foyer of the Little Theater. Artist Dan Dailey responded to the Museum’s space to create a new hand-painted background for his mural. The work was further customized to its new home with programmable computerized colored lights that change throughout the day. Light is reflected through and off the glass in a way that gives each figure a sense of flux.
[Image: 1987+Orbit2.jpg] The Rainbow Room showing Orbit installed.
Orbit expresses a spirit of celebration and exploration that spurs a sense of wonder. Look closely and you’ll notice that the 120 cast glass panels depict a spectrum of images suspended in a celestial setting. Icons of art history such as the so-called Venus of Willendorf and a Picasso Bull sculpture float with an astronaut, spaceships, shooting stars, and various planets. Disparate figures rooted in human curiosity are brought together in enigmatic combination.
Dan Dailey (American, born 1947) is a pioneering figure in American studio glass who continues to push the expressive potential of the medium forward. Emphasizing the role of light in his sculptural works, Dailey blends fantasy with the reality of everyday experience to create images that capture often whimsical thoughts, feelings, and moods about the human condition.
Panel 2:
A dynamic, lighted mural that playfully explores the thrill of curiosity, Orbit was commissioned in 1986 for the famous Rainbow Room restaurant and bar on the 65th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. Orbit was mounted above the bandstand and acted as the backdrop for the revolving dance floor. The theatrical mural created an alluring stage for the festive entertainment space.
In 2009, the Rainbow Room was gutted and remodeled by a new tenant. The mural’s original lighting scheme and steel frame were discarded and the panels stored. The owner of Rockefeller Plaza, Tishman Speyer Properties, donated the glass mural to the Toledo Museum of Art in 2015.
Orbit is once again an engulfing backdrop, but now the mural literally sheds new light on the foyer of the Little Theater. Artist Dan Dailey responded to the Museum’s space to create a new hand-painted background for his mural. The work was further customized to its new home with programmable computerized colored lights that change throughout the day. Light is reflected through and off the glass in a way that gives each figure a sense of flux.
[Image: 1987+Orbit2.jpg] The Rainbow Room showing Orbit installed.
DescriptionThe mural consists of 105 square cast glass panels depicting an imaginary vision of outer space in relief. Icons of art history such as the Venus of Willendorf and a Picasso bull sculpture are floating through space together with an astronaut, space ships, shooting stars, and various planets. In the original installation, the glass sections were mounted into a steel grid, backed by a hand-painted proscenium on board, and back-lit with computerized colored lights that could be adjusted to preference of color, brightness, and sequence.
On view
In Collection(s)