This California Loop by Marvin Lipofsky is from a series of similar works from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. In describing the sculptures’ shapes, Lipofsky said that they were "a reaction to the prevalence of clunky glass. I wanted to lift it up off the pedestal and to work with negative and positive shapes." Others saw something else in his forms. The bulbous phallic shapes and nipple-like protrusions were graphic and suggestive; critics have delighted in describing them in terms such as "hermaphroditic eroticism" and "trains of peristaltic translucent entrails." A leading exponent of sculptural glass, Lipofsky moved to California in 1964 to set up the hot glass program at University of California, Berkeley and a similar program at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland a few years later. He was a charismatic and passionate advocate for glass as sculpture, mentoring many students who went on to form their own glass programs at other universities on the West Coast and beyond. He heedlessly ignored the convention of vessel making, creating nonfunctional sculptures and unusual surface treatments. This piece is partially flocked, or covered with a fine, furry texture, which was inspired by a completely flocked "woodie" station wagon that Lipofsky saw at a hot rod and roadster show in Oakland. Lipofsky used this particular California Loop as the basis for an exploration of the form in a variety of media such as plastic, canvas, vinyl, and inflatable pillows to make a total environment, as he did at the Toledo Glass National III exhibition in 1970. With these radical new processes, he achieved colors and textures never seen before, both shocking and delighting the glass community.
Bobbye TIgerman, Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, May 2017
