MARVIN LIPOFSKY

September 1, 1938 — January 15, 2016

Credited with being one of a small group of artists responsible for creating the Studio Art Movement in America, Marvin Lipofsky has been a glass art ambassador all over the world.  As an Artist-in-Residence in over 25 international institutions, Lipofsky has immensely expanded the study of glass and has in turn been influenced by the myriad countries he has visited and artists with whom he has collaborated.

Representative of one of the basic tenets of the Studio Glass Movement, Lipofsky’s vessels are pure, abstract sculptural expression.  Colorful, organic, infinite, their components unfold like languidly melting petals.  Lipofsky’s process is creatively intuitive yet technical careful, resulting in flowing works that belie their painstaking creation.  In the 1960s he began experimenting with how to alter the surface and color of his sculptures, using techniques such as painting, copper, electroplating, rayon flocking, decals, mirroring, and fuming metal salts on the hot glass. Despite his masterly knowledge of the medium, Lipofsky also relishes in the pleasant discoveries and accidental developments that define how he learned glass in the first place.

Marvin Lipofsky received his BFA in Industrial Design from University of Illinois, a training that still informs his methodology.  He then received an MS and MFA in Sculpture from University of Madison, WI, where he was one of Harvey Littleton’s first graduate glass students.  Later, he would introduce glass into the Design Department at the University of California, Berkeley and found and head the California College of Art and Crafts.  He is the recipient of numerous awards including: a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1974/76); a Master of the Medium Award from the James Renwick Alliance (Washington, DC; 2003); and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass Award (2005); among others.

Marvin Lipofsky’s work can be found in many collections, including:  the Museum of Arts and Design(NY); the Corning Museum (NY); the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto (Japan); Museum Bellerive (Switzerland); the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PA); the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (CA); and the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC).  Among his many international artistic residencies are included:  the Roya Leerdam Factory (Amsterdam); the Nuutajärvi Glass Factory (Finland); Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (Jerusalem, Israel); Venini Factory (Murano, Italy); Miasa Bunko Center (Nagano, Japan); Dalian Shengdao  Glass Factory (China); Denizen Glass Studio (North Manly, Australia).