Early life

Ritter was born in Detroit but grew up in the then rural Michigan town of Novi

Novi, Michigan

Novi is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the population was 55,224, an increase over the 2000 census count of 47,386. The city is located approximately northwest of the center of Detroit, and northeast of the center of Ann Arbor. The city is located...

. He was inspired to pursue a career in art by his high school art teacher and in 1959 on to study at the Society of Arts and Crafts (later renamed the Center for Creative Studies) in Detroit, Michigan. In 1962 Ritter left school to take a job with an advertising firm, returning in 1968 to the Society of Arts and Crafts to continue his studies and teach advertising there. His first experience with hot glass came in that year, when another instructor, Gilbert Johnson

Gilbert Johnson

Sergeant Major Gilbert "Hashmark" Johnson was one of the first African Americans to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, and one of the first African American drill instructors in the U.S. Marine Corps. Johnson was known as “Hashmark” because he had more service stripes than rank stripes. He...

 (b. 1930) built a glass workshop at the school. Ritter graduated from the Society of Arts and Crafts in 1969 and went to the Bloomfield Art Association in Birmingham, Michigan

Birmingham, Michigan

Birmingham is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan and an affluent suburb of Detroit. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103...

 to teach glassblowing. In 1971 he enrolled in a summer session class at Penland School of Crafts

Penland School of Crafts

The Penland School of Crafts is a center for craft education located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, about 50 miles from Asheville....

 in North Carolina. His instructor there was glass artist Mark Peiser; Ritter soon afterward took a class with 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...

. He returned to the Penland school the following summer to teach, and in 1973 was named artist-in-residence at Penland School of Crafts, a position that he held until 1978. He continued to return to the school to teach and give workshops in subsequent years.

Work

Ritter moved to Cass, Michigan in 1978. As a professional glass artist he was at this time making murrini vessels and paperweights. A commission from Joan Mondale, wife to then-Vice President Walter Mondale

Walter Mondale

Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...

 for dessert plates led Ritter to experiment with open platter forms containing murrini and lattacino.

In 1980, Ritter purchased a small farm near Bakersville, North Carolina

Bakersville, North Carolina

Bakersville is a town in Mitchell County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 357 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Mitchell County.-Geography:Bakersville is located at ....

 where he built a studio. In the mid-1980s he began working on his “Triolet” series of large glass sculptures. In 1993 and 1994 he created the 26 art works of his “Grail” series; blown discs to which a faceted solid base was attached. These pieces often displayed etched and copper electroformed

Electroforming

Electroforming is a metal forming process that forms thin parts through the electroplating process. The part is produced by plating a metal skin onto a base form, known as a mandrel, which is removed after plating...

 surface decoration. He produced 136 glass sculptures in his “Floral Core” series between the years 2002 and 2009; the artist’s "Mandala and Florescence" series was produced in the years 1997 through 2001.

Exhibitions

Ritter has been honored with four retrospective exhibitions. In 2009, the fortieth anniversary of his career in glass art was celebrated by an exhibition of 75 works at Toe River Arts Council in Spruce Pine

Spruce Pine

Pinus glabra is a tree found on the coastal plains of the southern United States, from southern South Carolina south to northern Florida and west to southern Louisiana...

, North Carolina; the exhibition will travel to Western Carolina University

Western 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 2010. Lenders to the exhibition included Ritter's colleagues in North Carolina glass 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...

 and Kate Vogel and John Littleton.
Exhibitions of Ritter's work at Christian Brothers University

Christian Brothers University

Christian Brothers University is the oldest collegiate degree-granting institution in the city of Memphis. The university is run by the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic religious order founded by St. John Baptist de la Salle, the patron saint of teachers...

 in Memphis, Tennessee and at the University of Michigan, Dearborn celebrated the artist's thirtieth year in glass in 1990.

In 1993 the artist was one of 70 artists whose work was selected for “The White House Collection of Craft,” a traveling exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution.
Other notable group exhibitions in which the artist’s work has been seen include shows at Western Carolina University in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986; at Habatat Galleries in Michigan in 1981, 1983 1984 and in Habatat Galleries in Florida in 1992. In 1982 Ritter’s work was part of “Detroit Collects” at Detroit Institute of Arts

Detroit Institute of Arts

The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...

, Detroit, Michigan; “Contemporary Blown Glass by Southeastern Artists at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida and “World Glass Now ‘82” at the Hokkaidō Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo, Japan. His earliest international group exhibition was “American Glass Now” (1979) in Tokyo, Japan.

Awards

Ritter was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan in 2000. He received a North Carolina Artist Fellowship Grant 2000-2001. In 1984 he received a National Endowment for the Arts

National 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...

 Scholarship.

Collections

Ritter’s work is in the permanent collections of the Asheville Art Museum

Asheville Art Museum

The Asheville Art Museum is the only community based nonprofit visual art organization in Western North Carolina and is Accredited by the American Association of Museums. Its vision is to transform lives through art...

 (Asheville, North Carolina), 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), Mint Museum of Art (Charlotte, North Carolina), Hunter Museum of Art (Chattanooga, Tennessee), 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), Detroit Institute of Art, 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....

, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...

, Renwick Gallery

Renwick Gallery

The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, located in Washington, D.C., and focuses on American craft and decorative arts from the 19th century to the 21st century...

, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Smithsonian American Art Museum

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...

 (Washington, DC) and St. Louis Art Museum.