HARVEY K. LITTLETON b. 1922 Corning, New York; resides in North Carolina

The man called the father of the Studio Glass Movement was not at first a glass artist. After receiving a master of Fine Arts from Cranbrook Academy of Arts he embarked on the career of potter. Littleton received recognition for his work as a ceramicist in a national exhibition sponsored by the American Crafts Council at the First International Exposition of Ceramics in Cannes, France.

In 1959 he began to investigate the possibility of glass as a medium, and in 1960 had melted glass and cold-worked lumps of cullet.  In the summer of 1962 the Toledo Museum of Art invited Littleton to lead a glassblowing workshop.  It was in that seminar that Littleton introduced the idea that glass could be mixed and melted, blown and worked in the studio by the artist. Up to that time it was widely believed that glass objects could only be made in the highly structured, mass-produced world of the glass industry where the labor of making glass is divided between designers and skilled craftsmen.

That fall Littleton, who had been employed since 1951 as a ceramics teacher at the University of Wisconsin, began to offer glassblowing classes through the university at his farm outside Madison, Wisconsin.  In 1963 he established a graduate course and glass studio at the university that attracted as students such well-known artists as Marvin Lipofsky and Dale Chihuly.

Museum recognition for Littleton's work in glass soon followed in the form of solo exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago (1963) and the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York (l964). His work is in prestigious public collections including New York's  Museum of Arts and Design, Cooper Hewitt National Museum of Design, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art. His work is also featured in the collections of the Corning Museum of Glass, Detroit Institute of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum and the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art in Washington, DC.

Littleton retired from teaching in 1976 to devote his time fully to his work. He moved to Spruce Pine, North Carolina, where he set up his glass studio and produced his most technically demanding and beautiful series of works: the sinuous "Lyrical Movement" and "Implied Movement" groups, "Descending" forms and exuberant "Crowns" composed of multiple soaring arcs.

Photograph of Harvey K. Littleton (above left) by James M. Via; photograph of "Blue Crown," (above right) courtesy of Maurine Littleton Gallery

Trial II, 1975

Vitreograph on Arches, Edition of 50

image size: 19 x 15 3/4  x 22 inches, paper size: 30 x 21 inches          $1,000*

Cancelled, 1988

Vitreograph on rag paper, Edition of 50

image size: 28  x 22 inches, paper size: 41 x 29 inches          $900*

Fallbrook, 1993   

Vitreograph on Rives BFK White, Edition of 20

image size: 16  x 20 inches, paper size: 23 x 26 inches          $650*

Corning Inc.'s Fallbrook glass plant is located on Tioga Avenue in Corning, New York. The plant manufactures glass for industrial uses. As an art student Harvey Littleton painted a picture of the Fallbrook plant. He returned to the subject fifty years later to create this vitreograph print.

Light Shadow, 1993   

Vitreograph on Somerset, Edition of  30

image size: 20 x 16 inches;  paper size: 30 x 22 inches          $750* 

Giza, 1999   

Vitreograph on Rives BFK White, Edition of  40

image size: 24 x 36 inches;  paper size:  30 x 42 inches          $1,100* 

Light Shadow II, 1994 (Diptych)

Intaglio vitreograph on Somerset, Edition of 30

image size: 36 x 24 inches (each piece), paper size: 36 x 30 inches (each piece)    $1,800

Double Cross, 2000

Vitreograph on Rives BFK White, Edition of 40

image size: 24 x 24 inches; paper size: 30 x 30 inches                 $1,000*

Aurora State II, 2001

Intaglio vitreograph on Rives BFK White, Edition of 30

image size: 11 x 20 inches, paper size 19 ½ x 25 ½ inches            $500*

Undulation - State II, 2001

Vitreograph on Rives BFK White, Edition of  20

image size: 15 3/4 x 20 inches;  paper size:  22 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches     $500* 

Double X, 2001

Vitreograph on Rives BFK White, Edition of 40

image size: 19 3/4 x 15 ½ inches; paper size: 28 x 22 ½ inches         $500*

00 Buckshot State III, 2001

Vitreograph on Rives BFK White, Edition of 50

image size: 17 ¾ x 15 ½ inches; paper size: 26 x 22 ½ inches         $500*

Littleton developed the printmaking technique of vitreography in a cold working glass techniques seminar her taught in the summer of 1974. Part of the seminar was devoted to experimenting with resists for sandblasting.

A sandblasted piece of plate glass, later known as Trial II, was created during the seminar by Littleton using a resist of hot glue. It was the first glass plate to be successfully printed by Littleton's colleague, printmaker Warrington Colescott, who inked and proofed it at Littleton's request.

Vitreography proved such fertile ground for Littleton's inquisitive nature that he installed an etching press in his North Carolina glass studio. At the end of 1981 he hired a full-time master printer and encouraged visiting glass artists to try their hands at making prints.

Over the years Littleton invited painters and printmakers, as well as glass artists and sculptors, to create vitreographs at Littleton Studios.

Photograph of Harvey K. Littleton by James M. Via

Other editions by Harvey K. Littleton:

Diptych: Refraction, 1994, ed. 30, image size: 36 x 24 inches (each half), $1,800

White, White, 1998, ed. 32, image size: 23 1/2 x 42 1/2 inches, $1,100

Cracked - State II, 2001, ed. 30, image size: 20 x 16 inches, $500

#6 Birdshot - State III, ed. 50, image size: 19 3/4 x 15 1/2 inches, $500

 Please contact us for details.

*Prices are subject to change without notice.

To order:

Email The Littleton Collection (press "contact us" below) to let us know which print(s) you would like to purchase; we will confirm the price and that the print is still available.

Florida, North Carolina and District of Columbia residents: State tax will be added to the purchase price.

Prints are shipped flat. Shipping and handling adds $35 to the price of the print.

Payment:

Send check or money order for print(s), tax and shipping to:

The Littleton Collection, 3690 N. US 1, Fort Pierce, Florida 34946

Shipment and returns: Your print will be shipped as soon as we receive payment. Each print comes with a documentation sheet that certifies the materials used in making the print and the number of prints and proofs in the edition, along with other important information.

If you are not satisfied with your purchase return it within seven days of receipt in the packaging in which it was sent. The Littleton Collection will refund the purchase price on undamaged merchandise.

Questions: Email below or phone us in Florida at 772/595-9845 (9:00 to 5:00 EST -- long distance charge).