Marvin Lipofsky
Encyclopedia
Marvin Lipofsky is an American glass art
ist. 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. He was a central figure in the dissemination of the American Studio Glass Movement, introducing it to California through his tenure as an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley and the California College of Arts and Crafts.
, where his family owned a department store. In 1962, he earned a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois
, and he went on to earn both an MS and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
in 1964. There he studied under Harvey Littleton
, the founder, with assistance from Dominick Labino
, of the Studio Glass Movement. He would introduce the concepts of the movement during his subsequent tenure as a Design instructor at the University of California, Berkeley
, where he taught until 1972. During this time he was responsible for training many studio artists. Notable students of Marvin Lipofsky include John Lewis (b. 1945), Richard Marquis
(b. 1945) and Jay Musler
(b. 1947).
Lipofsky has been an instructor for seminars and workshops at art and craft schools, including the Pilchuck Glass School
in Stanwood, Washington; Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio, Southwest Craft Center in San Antonio, Texas; Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
in Deer Isle, Maine; Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel; San Francisco Art Institute
, San Francisco, California and the Art Department of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As a visiting artist he has traveled widely in the United States and internationally to Israel, Spain, France, Bulgaria, Sweden, Finland, Japan, and the Netherlands.
grants in 1976 and 1974.
in Corning, New York; High Museum of Art
, Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
, Oakland Museum, Oakland, California; Metropolitan Museum of Art
, New York City; Philadelphia Museum of Art
and Toledo Museum of Art
, Toledo, Ohio. Overseas his work is in Glasmuseet Ebeltoft
in Denmark; Museum Bellrive
in Zürich, Switzerland; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
in Rotterdam, Holland; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
, Japan and Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo, Japan.
. He is an alumnus of Zeta Beta Tau
Fraternity.
Glass art
Studio glass or glass sculpture is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional artworks. Specific approaches include working glass at room temperature cold working, stained glass, working glass in a torch flame , glass beadmaking, glass casting, glass...
ist. 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. He was a central figure in the dissemination of the American Studio Glass Movement, introducing it to California through his tenure as an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley and the California College of Arts and Crafts.
Education and teaching career
Lipofsky was raised in Barrington, IllinoisBarrington, Illinois
Barrington is a suburban village in Cook County, Illinois and Lake County, Illinois. The population was 10,327 at the 2010 census. Located approximately northwest of Chicago, the area features wetlands, forest preserves, parks and horse trails in a country-suburban setting...
, where his family owned a department store. In 1962, he earned a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
, and he went on to earn both an MS and an MFA in Sculpture from 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...
in 1964. There he studied under Harvey Littleton
Harvey 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...
, the founder, with assistance from Dominick Labino
Dominick Labino
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...
, of the Studio Glass Movement. He would introduce the concepts of the movement during his subsequent tenure as a Design instructor at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where he taught until 1972. During this time he was responsible for training many studio artists. Notable students of Marvin Lipofsky include John Lewis (b. 1945), Richard Marquis
Richard Marquis
Richard Marquis is an American studio glass artist who was born September 17, 1945 in Bumblebee, Arizona. He studied both ceramics and glass at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received a BA in 1969 and an MA in 1972...
(b. 1945) and Jay Musler
Jay Musler
Jay Musler is an American glass artist who was born in Sacramento, California in 1949. From 1968 to 1971, he attended the California College of the Arts . He received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council...
(b. 1947).
Lipofsky has been an instructor for seminars and workshops at art and craft schools, including the Pilchuck Glass School
Pilchuck Glass School
Founded in 1971 by Dale Chihuly, Anne Gould Hauberg and John H. Hauberg , Pilchuck Glass School is an international center for glass art education. The name "Pilchuck" comes from the local Native American language and translates to "red river"...
in Stanwood, Washington; Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio, Southwest Craft Center in San Antonio, Texas; Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, commonly called "Haystack," is a craft school located on the coast of Deer Isle, Maine.Haystack was founded in 1950. It took its name from its original location near Haystack Mountain, in Montville, Maine...
in Deer Isle, Maine; Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, Israel; San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
, San Francisco, California and the Art Department of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As a visiting artist he has traveled widely in the United States and internationally to Israel, Spain, France, Bulgaria, Sweden, Finland, Japan, and the Netherlands.
Founder and collaborator
In 1967 Lipofsky founded the glass program at the California College of Arts and Crafts, which he headed for two decades. He was also a founder of the Glass Art Society (G.A.S.), serving as president of that organization from 1978 to 1980. Lipofsky was one of the first American glass artists to travel to Czechoslovakia, where a studio glass movement had arisen in the 1950s. This would prove to be the first of many trips he would take; he became well known for his journeys abroad and his collaboration with numerous glass artists around the world.Work
Many of Lipofsky's works are colorful "bubbles" of glass. Often semi-translucent they allow the viewer to examine their depths. He is best known for the organic form of his pieces. “His art is about the visceral and the gestural,” wrote Studio Glass connoisseur Dan Klein. “The forms are inspired by internal organs, intestines, breast, stomachs, brains; their colorful, mottled, crumpled, broken shapes and expression of turbulence and restlessness.” Lipofsky is well known for having devoted his career in glass to endless variations on the turbulent, broken bubble form. His work, in short, is about glassblowing and the way the ways in which a blown glass sphere can be opened, shaped and distorted. Corning Museum of Glass curator Tina Oldknow has written that she admires Lipofsky “for his devotion to material and form. His non-objective vessels break apart and rearrange the blown glass mass while retaining the breathy, ephemeral quality that is one of the medium’s most intriguing characteristics".Awards
Notable awards garnered by the artist include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass in Chicago, Illinois in 2005 and a Masters of the Medium Award from the James Renwick Alliance, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC in 2003. He was named an Honorary Lifetime Member of the Glass Art Society (G.A.S.) in 1986 and a California Living Treasure in Sacramento, California in 1985. The artist was the recipient of two National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
grants in 1976 and 1974.
Collections
Lipofsky's work has been collected by many public institutions worldwide. In the United States his work can be found in the collections of the Corning Museum of GlassCorning 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....
in Corning, New York; High Museum of Art
High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art , located in Atlanta, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States and one of the most-visited art museums in the world. Located on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district, the High is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center.-History:The Museum was...
, Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....
, Oakland Museum, Oakland, California; Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, New York City; Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
and Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo 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. Overseas his work is in Glasmuseet Ebeltoft
Glasmuseet Ebeltoft
Located in Ebeltoft, Denmark, Glasmuseet Ebeltoft is a museum dedicated to the exhibition and collection of contemporary glass art worldwide. Its mission is to educate a broad audience in the appreciation of glass as an art form.-Establishment:...
in Denmark; Museum Bellrive
Museum of Design Zürich
The Museum of Design, Zurich is a museum for industrial design, visual communication, architecture, and craft in Zurich, Switzerland.- Overview :...
in Zürich, Switzerland; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
The Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is the main art museum in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The museum began in 1847 with the collection of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans . Much of the museum's original collection was destroyed in a disastrous 1864 fire...
in Rotterdam, Holland; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
The is an art museum in Kyoto, Japan.This Kyoto museum is also known by the English acronym MoMAK .-MoMAK history:...
, Japan and Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo, Japan.
Personal
The artist resides in Berkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
. He is an alumnus of Zeta Beta Tau
Zeta Beta Tau
Zeta Beta Tau was founded in 1898 as the nation's first Jewish fraternity, although it is no longer sectarian. Today the merged Zeta Beta Tau Brotherhood is one of the largest, numbering over 140,000 initiated Brothers, and over 90 chapter locations.-Founding:The Zeta Beta Tau fraternity was...
Fraternity.