50th Anniversary of the American Studio Glass Movement

The American Studio Glass movement begins with Harvey Littleton, a ceramicist who became a glass sculptor and is widely regarded as the “father” of the movement for the groundbreaking glassblowing seminar he organized for studio artists at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962. His story is one of conviction, experimentation, and a profound belief that glass belonged in the hands of individual artists, not only in factories.

A devoted educator, Littleton established one of the first university-level glass programs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and championed glass as a serious field of study across departments throughout the Midwest and Northeast. As glass historian Dan Klein wrote in Artists in Glass: Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass, Littleton’s goal was “to take the manufacture of glass out of its industrial setting and put it within the reach of the studio artist.” That shift in context—from factory floor to independent studio—changed the course of glass history.

Among Littleton’s students were Robert Fritz and Marvin Lipofsky, who became instrumental in building both private and public glass education in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their teaching, studio practice, and advocacy extended Littleton’s early vision from Wisconsin to the West Coast, and ultimately into major museum collections across the United States. The success of their efforts is visible today in the depth and breadth of contemporary glass on view in museums and collections nationwide.

In 2012, more than 160 museums across the country marked the 50th anniversary of the American Studio Glass movement, a powerful testament to Littleton’s legacy and to the generations of artists who followed him. It is a year rich with opportunities to see work by Littleton’s students and the “grand-students” who came after them. The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass has compiled an extensive calendar of 2012 events highlighting these celebrations, from regional exhibitions to major institutional shows.

Here in the Bay Area, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (at the de Young) are presenting Reflections: Celebrating 50 Years of the Studio Glass Movement, opening Saturday, October 27. On November 9, California studio glass pioneer Marvin Lipofsky will give a special lecture at the Koret Auditorium, offering a first-hand perspective on the movement’s evolution. Across the bay, the Oakland Museum of California is hosting Playing with Fire: Artists of the California Studio Glass Movement from October 27, 2012 through March 24, 2013, with an exhibition catalog available by request from info@micaela.com.

Taken together, these exhibitions and events honor a half-century of experimentation, teaching, and making—and they trace an unbroken line from Littleton’s first small-scale experiments in Toledo to the vibrant, international studio glass community we know today.