California Loop Series

Marvin Lipofsky (b. 1938) founded the glass program at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964, and he taught there until 1972. In 1967, he started another glass program at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, which he directed until 1987. Lipofsky was one of Harvey Littleton’s first graduate students in the sculpture program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He was also one of a pioneering group of artists who raised awareness of the Studio Glass movement around the world. Although it was essential for artists to learn technique, Lipofsky and other progressive glass artists shifted their focus to the execution of artistic ideas in glass. They searched for ways to subvert the traditional associations between glass and functionality by exploring sculptural forms. This early and influential sculpture is blown, cut, sandblasted, painted, flocked, and assembled. It illustrates the Studio Glass movement’s emphasis on unconventional forms and materials.