Dominick Labino
Encyclopedia
Dominick Labino
Dominick Labino was an internationally-known scientist, inventor, artist and master craftsman in glass
. Labino's art works in glass are in the permanent collections of more than 100 museums throughout the world. Labino held over 60 glass-oriented patents in the United States.
and began his professional career at Owens-Illinois
, Inc., a glass manufacturing plant in Clarion, Pennsylvania.
He then moved on to Toledo, where he spent the next 30 years with Johns-Manville
. Upon his retirement in 1965 he was vice president and director of research of the corporation. Labino continued to serve as a research consultant until 1975. Labino was an innovator in the processes and machines used in forming glass fibers. Three of his inventions employing fiberglass
were used in the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft
to insulate them against extreme temperatures.
According to art historian Martha Drexler Lynn, "Labino had a life-long love of tools, inventing and problem-solving which he coupled with a passion for artistic endeavors..." His interest in blowing glass began in the 1930s, when he ran the Owens-Illinois milk bottling plant. There he had a laboratory in which he created glass formulas. In 1940, his predecessor at the plant, Ben Alderson, showed Labino how to blow glass. Labino later blew glass as a hobby; at Johns-Manville he built a home glass furnace at which to pursue the craft. An early project was a glass paperweight that he created in 1958 for a friend's retirement. By 1960 he had melted a batch of glass and created a primitive blowpipe.
Labino and Harvey Littleton, with whom Labino would stage a ground-breaking glassblowing workshop at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962, met during the time that Littleton was a ceramics instructor at the Toledo Museum of Art School of Design (1949 to 1951) and Labino was taking evening craft classes there.
Labino's interest in Studio glass grew out of his frustration with industry, according to Lynn:
, then a ceramics instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, held the first of two week-long glassblowing workshops in a storage shed on the grounds of the Toledo Museum of Art. He had presented the workshop idea to the museum's director, Otto Wittmann, who agreed to it perhaps, Littleton suggested, as a means to draw a broad public to the museum. An industrial glass town, Toledo was home to the Libbey Owens Ford
Company, as well as Johns-Mansville, which had purchased Toledo's L.O.F. Glass Fibers company in 1958. Littleton enlisted Labino's help in the workshop for his knowledge of glassblowing's technical aspects. Labino initially advised Littleton about the type of fire bricks to use in the construction of the furnace for the workshop. Labino also donated the steel and burner for the furnace, while Littleton brought the bricks from his studio in Wisconsin. Thus the stage was set for the seminal event of the Studio Glass Movement. The workshop, which began on March 23, did not start out smoothly.
The first glass batch did not melt properly, and the stoneware crucible that Littleton had made to hold the molten glass in the furnace broke apart in the intense heat. Labino suggested that they melt the glass directly in the furnace; he then directed the conversion of the pot furnace into a small day tank. Instead of trying to melt another load of glass batch, Labino re-charged the furnace with the low-melting formula #475 glass marbles that he had developed for Johns-Manville for the production of fiberglass. The marbles, which melted at a relatively low temperature, produced glass that was malleable enough to blow. This enabled the workshop to continue and, with the craft's technique demonstrated by two retired industrial glassblowers, Harvey Leafgreen and Jim Nelson, participants blew glass around the clock.
Littleton would go on to found the first fine art glass program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
. Here Labino provided further valuable assistance. When the University of Wisconsin-Madison accepted Littleton's proposal to create a graduate glassblowing program in its fine art department, it did so with the stipulation that funds from outside the university be provided to purchase the equipment. Labino arranged for Johns-Mansville to donate $1000 and 2,400 pounds of #475 glass marbles to the program. Littleton's students and fellow glass pioneers, Marvin Lipofsky
and Dale Chihuly
, respectively founded the glass program at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 and initiated the glass program at the Rhode Island School of Design
in 1969.
In 1963 Labino set up his own glass studio on his farm near Grand Rapids, Ohio. He designed glass-blowing and finishing tools; built his own furnaces and annealing ovens; and began freehand blowing with molten glass. Through his research and development of new technologies, like the fusing of colors, he provided artists with the methods and tools to create glass as art in their own studios, no longer making it necessary to involve glass factories in their creative process.
Labino opened his studio under the auspices of the Toledo Museum of Art School of Design in 1966 and 1967 to present three workshops. His interest in the education of fine artists in glass-working materials and techniques was furthered by the publication of his book Visual Art in Glass (W.C. Brown Company, publishers) in 1967.
in 1970. In 1971 he received the Governor's Award for the Art, State of Ohio, and was presented with the first Ohio Art Council award for his contribution to the development of molten glass as a fine art form. Labino received the Toledo Glass and Ceramic Award in 1972, and was presented with the Rakow Award for Excellence in Glass by the Corning Museum of Glass in 1985.
Labino received the Steuben Phoenix Award in 1977 for his contributions both to the production of industrial glass and to the use of glass in fine art.
in Cullowhee, North Carolina, 1982 and "Dominick Labino: A Decade of Glass Craftsmanship, 1964-1969" at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, 1974.
, Toledo, Ohio; Cleveland Museum of Art
, Cleveland, Ohio; Art Institute of Chicago
, Chicago, Illinois; Corning Museum of Glass
, Corning, New York; Chrysler Museum of Art
, Norfolk, Virginia; Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, California; Smithsonian Institution
, Washington, D.C.; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England; Kuntsmuseum, Düsseldorf, Germany; National Glasmuseum, Leerdam
, Holland; Pilkington Glass Museum, England and Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe
in Hamburg, Germany.
Dominick Labino was an internationally-known scientist, inventor, artist and master craftsman in glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
. Labino's art works in glass are in the permanent collections of more than 100 museums throughout the world. Labino held over 60 glass-oriented patents in the United States.
Education and career
Dominick Labino was trained as an engineer at the Carnegie Institute of TechnologyCarnegie Institute of Technology
The Carnegie Institute of Technology , is the name for Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. It was first called the Carnegie Technical Schools, or Carnegie Tech, when it was founded in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie who intended to build a “first class technical school” in Pittsburgh,...
and began his professional career at Owens-Illinois
Owens-Illinois
Owens-Illinois Inc. is a Fortune 500 company that specializes in container glass products. It is one of the world's leading manufacturers of packaging products, holding the position of largest manufacturer of glass containers in North America, South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe...
, Inc., a glass manufacturing plant in Clarion, Pennsylvania.
He then moved on to Toledo, where he spent the next 30 years with Johns-Manville
Johns-Manville
Johns Manville is an American corporation based in Denver, Colorado that manufactures insulation, roofing materials, and engineered products. The stock was included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average from January 29, 1930 to August 27, 1982 when it was replaced by American Express. Berkshire...
. Upon his retirement in 1965 he was vice president and director of research of the corporation. Labino continued to serve as a research consultant until 1975. Labino was an innovator in the processes and machines used in forming glass fibers. Three of his inventions employing fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
were used in the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft
Apollo spacecraft
The Apollo spacecraft was composed of five combined parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth...
to insulate them against extreme temperatures.
According to art historian Martha Drexler Lynn, "Labino had a life-long love of tools, inventing and problem-solving which he coupled with a passion for artistic endeavors..." His interest in blowing glass began in the 1930s, when he ran the Owens-Illinois milk bottling plant. There he had a laboratory in which he created glass formulas. In 1940, his predecessor at the plant, Ben Alderson, showed Labino how to blow glass. Labino later blew glass as a hobby; at Johns-Manville he built a home glass furnace at which to pursue the craft. An early project was a glass paperweight that he created in 1958 for a friend's retirement. By 1960 he had melted a batch of glass and created a primitive blowpipe.
Labino and Harvey Littleton, with whom Labino would stage a ground-breaking glassblowing workshop at the Toledo Museum of Art in 1962, met during the time that Littleton was a ceramics instructor at the Toledo Museum of Art School of Design (1949 to 1951) and Labino was taking evening craft classes there.
Labino's interest in Studio glass grew out of his frustration with industry, according to Lynn:
"As he recalled, 'I had just had it in industry. I would say to myself, 'How many years will I have to stay here until I can do something that I don't have to get approved by twelve to fourteen people?'"
Studio Glass Movement
In March, 1962 Harvey LittletonHarvey Littleton
Harvey Littleton is an American educator and glass artist. Born in Corning, New York, he grew up in the shadow of Corning Glassworks, where his father headed Research and Development during the 1930s...
, then a ceramics instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, held the first of two week-long glassblowing workshops in a storage shed on the grounds of the Toledo Museum of Art. He had presented the workshop idea to the museum's director, Otto Wittmann, who agreed to it perhaps, Littleton suggested, as a means to draw a broad public to the museum. An industrial glass town, Toledo was home to the Libbey Owens Ford
Libbey Owens Ford
The Libbey–Owens–Ford Company was a producer of flat glass for the automotive and building products industries both for original equipment manufacturers and for replacement use. The company's headquarters and main factories were located in Toledo, Ohio, with large float glass plants in Rossford,...
Company, as well as Johns-Mansville, which had purchased Toledo's L.O.F. Glass Fibers company in 1958. Littleton enlisted Labino's help in the workshop for his knowledge of glassblowing's technical aspects. Labino initially advised Littleton about the type of fire bricks to use in the construction of the furnace for the workshop. Labino also donated the steel and burner for the furnace, while Littleton brought the bricks from his studio in Wisconsin. Thus the stage was set for the seminal event of the Studio Glass Movement. The workshop, which began on March 23, did not start out smoothly.
The first glass batch did not melt properly, and the stoneware crucible that Littleton had made to hold the molten glass in the furnace broke apart in the intense heat. Labino suggested that they melt the glass directly in the furnace; he then directed the conversion of the pot furnace into a small day tank. Instead of trying to melt another load of glass batch, Labino re-charged the furnace with the low-melting formula #475 glass marbles that he had developed for Johns-Manville for the production of fiberglass. The marbles, which melted at a relatively low temperature, produced glass that was malleable enough to blow. This enabled the workshop to continue and, with the craft's technique demonstrated by two retired industrial glassblowers, Harvey Leafgreen and Jim Nelson, participants blew glass around the clock.
Littleton would go on to found the first fine art glass program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
. Here Labino provided further valuable assistance. When the University of Wisconsin-Madison accepted Littleton's proposal to create a graduate glassblowing program in its fine art department, it did so with the stipulation that funds from outside the university be provided to purchase the equipment. Labino arranged for Johns-Mansville to donate $1000 and 2,400 pounds of #475 glass marbles to the program. Littleton's students and fellow glass pioneers, Marvin Lipofsky
Marvin Lipofsky
Marvin Lipofsky is an American glass artist. He was one of the six students that Studio Glass founder Harvey Littleton instructed under an independent study program for the University of Wisconsin-Madison in fall 1962 and spring 1963...
and Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly
Dale Chihuly is an American glass sculptor and entrepreneur.-Biography:Chihuly graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma, Washington. He enrolled at the College of the Puget Sound in 1959...
, respectively founded the glass program at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964 and initiated the glass program at the Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
in 1969.
In 1963 Labino set up his own glass studio on his farm near Grand Rapids, Ohio. He designed glass-blowing and finishing tools; built his own furnaces and annealing ovens; and began freehand blowing with molten glass. Through his research and development of new technologies, like the fusing of colors, he provided artists with the methods and tools to create glass as art in their own studios, no longer making it necessary to involve glass factories in their creative process.
Labino opened his studio under the auspices of the Toledo Museum of Art School of Design in 1966 and 1967 to present three workshops. His interest in the education of fine artists in glass-working materials and techniques was furthered by the publication of his book Visual Art in Glass (W.C. Brown Company, publishers) in 1967.
Honors and awards
Labino received an honorary doctorate from Bowling Green State UniversityBowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University, often referred to as Bowling Green or BGSU, is a public, coeducational research university located in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The institution was granted a charter in 1910 by the State of Ohio as part of the Lowry Bill, which also established Kent State...
in 1970. In 1971 he received the Governor's Award for the Art, State of Ohio, and was presented with the first Ohio Art Council award for his contribution to the development of molten glass as a fine art form. Labino received the Toledo Glass and Ceramic Award in 1972, and was presented with the Rakow Award for Excellence in Glass by the Corning Museum of Glass in 1985.
Labino received the Steuben Phoenix Award in 1977 for his contributions both to the production of industrial glass and to the use of glass in fine art.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions of Labino's art work in glass include "Dominick Labino: A Half Century with Glass" at the Owens-Illinois Art Center in Toledo, Ohio, 1983; "Dominick Labino: Glass Retrospective" at Western Carolina UniversityWestern Carolina University
Western Carolina University is a coeducational public university located in Cullowhee, North Carolina, United States. The university is a constituent campus of the University of North Carolina system....
in Cullowhee, North Carolina, 1982 and "Dominick Labino: A Decade of Glass Craftsmanship, 1964-1969" at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, 1974.
Collections
Some of the national and international museums that have collected Dominick Labino's art work in glass include: Toledo Museum of ArtToledo Museum of Art
The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio, United States. The museum was founded by Toledo glassmaker Edward Drummond Libbey in 1901, and moved to its present location, a Greek revival building designed by Edward B....
, Toledo, Ohio; Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art is an art museum situated in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian art, the museum houses a diverse permanent collection of more than 43,000...
, Cleveland, Ohio; Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago is one of America's largest accredited independent schools of art and design, located in the Loop in Chicago, Illinois. It is associated with the museum of the same name, and "The Art Institute of Chicago" or "Chicago Art Institute" often refers to either...
, Chicago, Illinois; Corning Museum of Glass
Corning Museum of Glass
The Corning Museum of Glass, in Corning, New York, explores every facet of glass, including art, history, culture, science and technology, craft, and design....
, Corning, New York; Chrysler Museum of Art
Chrysler Museum of Art
The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum in the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was originally founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. , donated most of his extensive collection to the museum...
, Norfolk, Virginia; Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, California; Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, Washington, D.C.; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England; Kuntsmuseum, Düsseldorf, Germany; National Glasmuseum, Leerdam
Leerdam
Leerdam is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland.The municipality covers an area of 34.32 km² of which 0.53 km² is water. It comprises the town of Leerdam, the rural villages Kedichem, Schoonrewoerd and Oosterwijk. The south border of the...
, Holland; Pilkington Glass Museum, England and Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe is a museum of fine, applied and decorative arts in Hamburg, Germany. It is located centrally, near the Hauptbahnhof.-History:...
in Hamburg, Germany.
External links
- Dominick Labino: The Man and His Art, WBGU-PBS documentary