Implosion/Explosion

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Implosion/Explosion

Artist Harvey K. Littleton (American, 1922-2013)

Date1964

DimensionsH: 7 7/16 in. (16.35 cm); Max Diam of opening: 5 9/16 in. (14.2 cm); Max Length: 6 7/16 in. (16.4 cm).

MediumGlass, blown

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Maurine B. Littleton and Carol Shay

Object number

1992.36

On View

Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2444 Monroe Street), Glass Pavilion Gallery, 2

Label TextHarvey Littleton was a catalyst for the mid-20th-century growth of the American studio glass movement. Although Littleton’s early work was in clay, he re-connected with glass (to which he was introduced in his native Corning, NY) when he took a teaching position at the Toledo Museum of Art School of Design. He came to believe that materials associated with craft (i.e., glass, industrial metals, ceramics) could be used to make art. Later visits to glass studios in France and Italy proved for him the potential for glassmaking outside a large factory setting. This notion came to underscore the studio glass movement and separated it from the ambition of those who worked in other craft media.Published References

Littleton, Harvey K., Glassblowing-A Search for Form, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1972, p. 134 (incorrectly titled "Light Blue Form 1963").

Byrd, Joan Falconer, Harvey K. Littleton: a Life in Glass, Founder of America's Studio Glass Movement, New York, Skira Rizzoli, 2011, repr. (col.) p. 53.

Page, Jutta-Annette, Peter Morrin, and Robert Bell, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, Toledo, OH, 2012, p. 33, repr. (col.) p. 34, pl. 12.

Adamson, Glenn, "Attack of the Blob," The Glass Art Society Journal, 2012, p. 32, repr.

Exhibition History

Milwaukee Arts Center, Harvey Littleton Glass, January 1966, object titled "Anthropomorphic Form" (#9).

Heller Gallery/The Exhibition Space, Harvey K. Littleton Glass Sculpture, January 8-30, 1982, repr. (page unnumbered).

Washington D.C., Renwick Gallery; New York, American Craft Museum II; Ames, Iowa, Brunnier Gallery and Museum; Atlanta, High Museum of Art, et. al., Harvey K. Littleton: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1984, cat. no. 16, p. 36.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Saint Louis Art Museum; Toledo Museum of Art; Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art; Made in America: Ten Centuries of American Art, 1995-1996, p. 182, repr. (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Color Ignited: Glass 1962-2012, June 14-September 9, 2012.