Photograph by Lee Nordness
Harvey Littleton was a connective link in the history of American glass. He had grown up in the heart of the industry, learning from his father, a leading researcher at Corning Glass Works. Though his initial activity as a craftsman was in ceramics—he studied with Maija Grotell at Cranbrook Academy of Art, funded on the GI Bill—he was determined to establish an independent way of working in glass, without factory infrastructure. The breakthrough came in 1962, at a pair of workshops held in Toledo, Ohio. The gatherings included other future exhibitors in Objects: USA, among them Marvin Lipofsky, Tom McGlauchlin, and Dominick Labino, who also brought industry experience (he was a retired technician from the fiberglass company Johns Manville).
Together, Littleton and his colleagues developed the competencies necessary for making glass in the studio: furnaces, material formulas, and of course blowing skills. Littleton himself applied these insights to make sculpture that was at once technical and expressive. Falling Blue, a series of five blown and cut forms arranged in a little symphony of curves, was a key work in Objects: USA and is featured in the Objects: USA 2020 catalogue. It showed that even at a rudimentary stage of technical development, this medium was capable of compelling gesture.