AACG News
In Memoriam: Tom McGlauchlin (1934 – 2011)
The glass community lost a pioneer when artist Tom McGlauchlin, 76, died on Monday, April 4. He had pancreatic cancer and passed away in his home in Old Orchard, Ohio. Born on September 14, 1934, McGlauchlin grew up in Beloit, Wisconsin. He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, devoting his first two years to engineering before switching to art. He began his art career working in ceramics. In 1960 and 1961 he taught colleague and mentor Harvey Littleton’s pottery classes so Littleton could devote his sabbatical to researching glass. Mr. McGlauchlin’s artistic life changed when he attended two workshops on glass as art given by Littleton in 1962. Those two workshops, given in a garage at the Toledo Museum of Art, are considered the birth of the Studio Glass movement.
He left the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1961 and spent the next 10 years in the art department at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. In the summer of 1964 he taught an introductory glassblowing class at the University of Iowa. It was the second glass course taught in an American university, with Littleton teaching the first at University of Wisconsin in 1962.
He relocated to Toledo in 1971 and dedicated the next 13 years to teaching glass as part of a joint program between the Toledo Museum of Art and the University of Toledo. When he left the program in 1984, he devoted himself to making art full time. From 1978 until his death he worked on a series of glass sculptures exploring abstract qualities of the human face. Recent works include fused glass panels honoring Henri Matisse and Piet Mondrian, as well as more archetypal figures. His work is in permanent collections in museums such as the Smithsonian Institute, the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, the Kunstmuseum in Dusseldorf, Germany, the Corning Glass Museum and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. Mr. McGlauchlin’s sculpture commissions include pieces at Bowling Green State University in Ohio and at the University of Toledo.
He is survived by his wife, son, three grandchildren, and four siblings. A celebration of his life will be held on Sunday, May 1, 2011 at 2 p.m. at the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Tom McGlauchlin Memorial Fund at the Toledo School for the Arts, or to the Hospice of Northwest Ohio or Toledo Museum of Art.
| Posted 11 Apr 18
