Marvin Lipofsky – US Glass Movement Pioneer

Marvin Lipofsky, remains a legend in the US glass movement. His contributions are numerous. He was large burly glass artist known for his irascible temperament, an artist who pushed the theories on glass (and his students) as a medium influenced by his original studies in clay.

The picture is part of our “selfie” a new word for Marvin that we made at the San Jose Glass Art Society Conference in June 2015. He arrived at the party at the Tech Museum with only a hand written name tag. No one dared point this out. His size and reputation preceded him – everywhere.

He was among the first students in the Harvey Littleton‘s emerging US Studio Glass Movement and with the exposure to glass, his focus changed. With his MFA in sculpture, he went on to teach at the University of California Berkeley and in 1967 founded the glass program at the California College of Arts and Crafts. And the rest, as they say, is history.

For his full resume you can visit his website

He was one of the early members of the Glass Art Society (G.A.S.) and wore many hats organizing and promoting this world wide association which today has over 2,700 members from 50 countries. He received the Lifetime in 1986 and was on hand in 2015 to see his student Mary White receive this prestigious award. Though classic, Lipofsky, he was still critiquing her work, always pushing his students.

Along the way he has studied and taught in over 50 cities around the world. This video was filmed at the Oakland Museum in California with Lipofsky in his own words.

Lipofsky’s work has been collected by many public institutions worldwide. In the United States his work can be found in the collections of the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oakland Museum, Oakland, California; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Philadelphia Museum of Art and Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio. Overseas his work is in Glasmuseet Ebeltoft in Denmark; Glasmuseum Frauenau (de) (Sammlung Wolfgang Kermer (de)), Germany; Museum Bellrive in Zürich, Switzerland;Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Holland; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan and Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art in Sapporo, Japan

To say that his work lives on, is an understatement.

Author: VenetianBeadShop

What began as a fascination with the glass of Murano has become a way of life. Our webstore has all you will need to make jewelry, quality findings, stringing materials, Swarovski Crystals and a lot more, but our main focus is the Venetian Glass Bead. We have been an integral part in promoting Venetian glass beads throughout the world as well as helping to breathe new life into traditional Venetian techniques. A few years ago, we introduced our line of Venetian Dichroics to the US through as a result of years of efforts with our beadmakers in Murano. We continue to bring new and innovative ideas to this age old industry. Most recently, we developed the Furnace Glass along with our partner furnace in Venice. It's a blend of old glass making techniques to work with new fashion ideas. We remain a family owned business located in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, CA, USA where we have been importing Venetian Glass and Murano Glass commercially since 1993. Our wholesale showroom has the largest collection of Venetian Beads on display anywhere. View all posts by VenetianBeadShop