Harvey K Littleton
Posted in Notes from Kenn Holsten on May 25th, 2009 by Kenn Holsten
- Littleton “Twin Arcs”
Many of you are aware that Harvey K. Littleton is considered to be the father of the studio glass movement. Way back in the 1960′s Littleton teamed up with a glass scientist, Dominic Labino, and created the first small hot shop in the U.S.
At that time, Littleton was an art Profesor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He began teaching glass blowing to a handfull of graduate students, including Marvin Lipofsky and Dale Chihuly. After their graduation Lipofsky and Chihuly in turn began glass programs at California School of Art and Crafts in Oakland and Rhode Island School of Design in Providence respectively. Many of the great names in American glass art began as students of these two giants in the studio glass movement.
On a personal level, Holsten Galleries gave Littleton a one-person show in 1982 at its Palm Beach location. This was in many ways the launching of our gallery into the big league of the glass world, even though the gallery originated in Stockbridge 4 years earlier. I have fond memories of Harvey coming down to many of his openings in Palm Beach. He had another good reason to come down from his home and studio in North Carolina: he kept a sailboat in Florida and loved to spend time on the ocean. Harvey, thank you for your huge contribution in starting what has turned out to be a huge rennaisance in the creation of art objects in glass!
