Marvin Lipofsky

September 1, 1938 — January 15, 2016

Marvin Lipofsky introduced glass as an art form in 1964 at the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Design where he taught until 1972.  In 1967, he founded and headed the glass department at the California College of Arts and Crafts and taught as a full professor until 1987.

He earned his BFA in Industrial Design, 1957—1962 at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, followed by an MS and MFA in Sculpture, 1962-1964, University of Wisconsin, Madison where he was one of the first graduate students in Harvey Littleton's initial glass course.

Widely traveled, he has promoted the glass movement by teaching and lecturing both nationally and internationally at more than 300 workshops, summer programs, conferences and universities in 29 countries.  Among the numerous awards earned are two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, The Living Treasures of California Award, Honorary Member of the Hungarian Glass Art Society, Distinguished Graduate Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts from Barrington High School, Barrington, Illinois.  The American Craft Council College of Fellows, New York City, Honorary Award for Inspiration and Instigation of the Bay Area Glass Community, California Glass Exchange, San Jose, California, and Master of the Medium Award, James Renwick Alliance, Washington, D.C.

 As a founding member of the Glass Art Society, he served as its President from 1978—80; served as the first editor of the Glass Art Society Journal from 1976—79.  He was selected a Life Member of the Glass Art Society in 1986.  He has actively served on various boards such as The National Council on Education for the Ceramics Arts, The Board of Trustees at California College of Arts and Crafts as President of the Faculty Assembly, the Board of Trustees of the American Craft Council as a Craftsman Trustee (named trustee emeritus in 1998), and Friends of Bezalel International Advisory Board.

He has participated in organizing workshops and panels for conferences and seminars hosted by the International Sculpture Center, The American Crafts Council, The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, World Craft Council, and the Glass Art Society.

Since 1970, his interest in foreign countries and their cultures have resulted in creating major series of glass sculptures by working with Master Glassblowers such as Leendert van der Linden, Holland; Gianni Toso and Lino Tagliapietra, Italy; Petr Novotny and Stefan Stefko, Czech Republic; Jan-Erik Ritzman, Sweden; Unto Suominen, Finland; and Mitsunobu Sagawa, Japan.  The sculptures were created in glass factories and studios in Australia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Peoples Republic of China, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, and the USA.  Lipofsky usually completes his glass sculptures in his Berkeley, California, studio where he spends many hours cold-working his glass cutting, grinding, and sandblasting the shapes into the final sculptural form.

His sculptures are included in numerous private collections and are in more than 94 museum and corporate collections throughout the world.

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Work by This Artist