Harvey Littleton was a great ceramic and glass artist born in Corning, New York in 1922. His father worked for the Corning Glassworks company as a lead researcher and is credited with inventing a glassware still used today called Pyrex.
For his artistic education Littleton attended the University of Michigan where he studied physics for three semesters. The artist quit school and attended the Cranbrook Academy of Art located in Blooming Hills, Michigan. The artist would eventually study industrial design. Whilst a student he was able to learn from two master sculptors Marshall Fredericks and Carl Milles.
Littleton went on to earn a bachelors degree from Michigan and a masters degree of fine art from the Crannbrook Academy. His career started as a ceramist working with simple forms including vases and basic cylinders.
Littleton was key in bringing glass ware from an industrial setting to a more studio setting where studio artists could easily work with his favorite material, glass. The artist gave the first studio glass blowing seminar in 1962 at the Toledo Museum of Art.
The artist served in the Army for three years.
A short clip and brief biography about Harvey Littleton:
In this video we visit Littleton at his workshop:
A student of Littleton that went on to have tremendous respect in the field is the master glass artist Dale Chihuly already profiled here.
Littleton retired from teaching in 1976 to concentrate on his own art.
Harvey Kline Littleton passed away in 2013 at the age of 91 years old.
What wonderful contributions this artist made to the world of glass. Its also interesting to see how a great scientist (his father) was a key element in his appreciation of glass. Where his dad saw industry, the son saw art!
Awesome!
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Harvey Littleton is part of many public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Art located in New York City.
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