Barrington native became internationally acclaimed glass artist

Marvin Lipofsky, a Barrington native who went on to become one of the world's most renowned blown glass artists, has died.

Lipofsky, whose grandfather owned Lipofsky's Department Store in Barrington, is being hailed as a founder of the studio glass movement and one of the ambassadors of blown glass as a fine art. He died Jan. 15 in Oakland, California, at the age of 77.

"He was recognized around the world," said his sister, Barbara Marsh of Chicago. "But he also shared his art, traveling to as many as 30 countries setting up programs to teach blown glass."

Lipofsky's work has been represented by more than 100 galleries, and he presented more than 300 workshops, both nationally and internationally, promoting the art medium.

His pieces can be found in the permanent collections of nearly a dozen art museums, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.; to the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, Japan, and the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, among many others.

However, Lipofsky never forgot his roots and he returned to the area regularly for Barrington High School reunions. In 1989, the high school honored him with its Distinguished Graduate Award for Outstanding Achievement in Art. It was the same year the family department store was destroyed by a fire.

Marsh said she and her brother looked back fondly on their childhood years in Barrington. Lipofsky played baseball and enjoyed swimming, but devoted much of his efforts to Boy Scouts, where he spent time outdoors and first demonstrated his artistic bent.

"He used to whittle neckerchief slides out of wood, and he'd trade them at the Boy Scout Jamborees," Marsh said. "They were really like works of art; each one was different and he'd often paint them."

Lipofsky took art classes at Barrington High, from where he graduated in 1957, and later attended the University of Illinois in Champaign, earning a fine arts degree in industrial design.

That was just the start.

When Lipofsky enrolled at the University of Wisconsin to purse graduate studies in sculpture and ceramics, he was introduced to Harvey Littleton, who is credited with founding the American Glass Movement.

Lipofsky was one of six students to study under the master, beginning in 1962, and upon graduation in 1964 he was hired by the University of California, Berkeley to build and direct its glass program.

He later developed the glass program at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland - now the California College of the Arts - where he remained until 1987, when he left to work full time in his studio in Berkeley.

Besides his sister, Lipofsky is survived by his daughter, Lisa Valenzuela, and two grandchildren. Services are pending.