The Tricky and Fascinating Four, where are they today?
1. Marvin Lipofsky--One of the most well-known glass artists today, presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from GAS
2. Monona Rossol--The best voice in safety for artists in all materials, she's an author, stage performer, ceramics and glass artist and industrial hygienist, too.
3. Samuel Herman-- Mark Hill, author of Miller's Collectible Price Guide, and expert on Antiques Roadshow says he's "Arguably the greatest name in British studio glass - and pretty darned important in the global studio glass movement too. Unfairly in my mind at least, few recognise his incredible vision, abilities and importance. Without him, studio glass techniques would not and could not have spread to the UK and beyond."
4. Rodger Lang--ceramicist and teacher at Metropolitan State College in Denver, CO. Passed away in 2000.
1964 Wisconson State Journal:"Four Madison artists who have been experimenting in the tricky and fascinating art of glass-blowing under the tutelage of Prof. Harvey Littleton, of the University of Wisconsin, will be showing their work Monday at the Madison Art Association’s Downtown Sidewalk Art Fair in Capitol Park.
They are Samuel Herman, Marvin Lipofsky, Rodger Lang, and Monona Rossol, all U.W. graduate students or former graduate students specializing in ceramics and sculpture.
They pursue their interest in creating beauty in glass at 52 Randall ave. in a new workshop that formerly served as a warehouse for pleasure boats.
This unpretentious tin building called the “glass lab” is a mecca for students and teachers of the ancient art of glass-blowing, who are attracted by the skill and creativeness of Littleton, well-known for many years as a potter and now achieving new laurels for his artistry in glass.
One of Littleton’s vases is currently on display in the New York Museum of Modern Art’s good design exhibit, and four pieces are included in the 13th International Design Triennale in Milan, Italy.
Littleton is also the only glass artist now exhibiting at New York’s Museum of Contemporary Crafts.
Grants Built Lab
His personal interest in glass as an art form is responsible for the glass lab, which was set up a year ago in several grants prompted by an original gift of $1,000 from the Johns-Manville glass fibers division.
To Littleton’s knowledge, the grant was the first from an industrial or private source ever
received by the U.W. art department for practicing arts.
It has already reaped rewards. A class of eight graduate students worked under Littleton there the past 10 months, achieving results which the talented teacher modestly lauds as ‘better than I managed in several years working alone at the furnace I have at my farm.”
Among them are the four young people who will be exhibiting at the art fair. Lang, a native of Chicago and graduate of Cornell College was sent to Littleton by a former Littleton student who know teaches at Iowa college.
Herman is the blass lab [sic] assistant for the summer, and will have a sculpture assistantship [sic] this fall as he continues work on his master’s degree.
Won Show Award
Miss Rossol holds a degree in chemistry from the university as well as a master’s degree in art and a M.F.A. She won an award for her glass last fall in the Wisconsin Designer-Craftsman show.
Marvin Lipofsky, who received his M.F.A. in sculpture in June, is the first disciple to spread the Littleton influence to another campus. He goes in the fall to the University of California at Berkeley, to start a program in glass at the undergraduate level in the department of decorative arts.
The University of Iowa and the Haystack School in Maine currently have summer workshops in this medium, but LIpofsky’s venture comprises the first regularly scheduled program in free-blown glass at the university level other than here at Wisconsin.
Spreading of interest and know how to other campuses is one of Littleton’s objectives, for he sees as long-overdue the re-adoption of glass as a medium of creative expression.
“The creative artist and the craftsman have been separated. We believe that the artist’s heart, hand, and head should all be used together and simultaneously to express the idea that originates within him. Glass can be many things. You’re out not to re-discover but to exploit as an artist some of the things of the past, he says.
To this end the glass furnace at 52 N. Randall glows [..?..] day, giving off a loud humming that immediately attracts the passerby. It was built by students, as was the annealing oven and other equipment.
4-Week Class Held
To this end to, Littleton has set up a four-week class this summer for specialists and instructors from all over the country who were invited to the university to learn and to share their knowledge of free-blown glass.
From Munich, Germany, has come Erwin Eisch, painter, sculptor, co-owner of a Bavarian glass factory, and one of the few individual glass artists in the world today.
Dr. Robert Fritz, assistant professor of ceramics at San Jose State College, and Russell Day, a well-known glass artists who is head of the art department at Everett Junior College [sic] in Washington, have come from the West Coast to observe, experiment, and learn.
An industrial engineer, Carl H. Betz of Philadelphia, whose work in glass-blowing has been extensive in the scientific instrument filed, is discovering new joys in free-blown glass.
Other invited ‘students’ are Don Wallace, sculptor and ceramist from Toronto; Frank Kulasjewicz, a doctoral candidate in art education at Teacher’s College, Columbia University; Robert C. Florian, a prominent art educator from Franklin Park, Ill.; and Mrs. Gail Griggs, a graduate student associated with the Art Institute of Chicago.”
['Artists Experiment With Glassblowing' from Wisconsin State Journal], 1964 July 12 / Wisconsin State Journal. Clipping : 1 p. ; 38 x 24 cm. Harvey K. Littleton papers, 1946-1975. Archives of American Art.website accessed June 6, 2009 and transcribed by ABJ. http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/searchimages/images/image_201_168.htm
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