Tom McGlauchlin

Tom McGlauchlin
Toledo, Ohio (b. 1934 – d. 2011)

Tom McGlauchlin artwork currently on view at 20 North Gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On view works included in Salon: the Collection of Ann Goodridge:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For purchase inquiries, please contact 20 North Gallery:
419-241-2400  or  info@20northgallery.com

Artist Biography
Tom McGlauchlin was one of the leading figures in the Studio Glass Movement, from its founding workshops in 1962 at the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio, until his death in 2011.  In 1961, as an instructor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he taught Harvey K. Littleton’s pottery classes while Littleton was on leave researching glass blowing.   The next year, he and Littleton became co-founders of the Studio Glass Movement, becoming renowned as great art innovators of the age.   McGlauchlin continued in Toledo as a professor and director of the University of Toledo and Toledo Museum of Art Joint Glass Program from 1971-1984, after founding the Glass Program at the University of Iowa in Iowa City—as an expert in the new media of studio glass—after his initial 8-hour share of blowing time at that first studio glass workshop.

As a professional artist working in glass, Tom McGlauchlin’s work has been avidly collected by individuals, museums and communities for many years, with pieces of both private and public in scale.   His sculpture commissions in the Toledo area include Clouds of Joy, the central sculpture of glass and stainless steel that hangs in the lobby of the Four SeaGate Building for Toledo Edison Company; A Mountain for Toledo, located in the lobby of the SeaGate Centre, Downtown; and A Free Verse in Color, a hanging glass sculpture located at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.   Over the five decades of his glass art career, Mr. McGlauchlin participated in group and solo glass exhibitions throughout the world from the 1960s until the end of his life.

Tom McGlauchlin’s work is included in numerous permanent collections in national and international institutions such as the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning New York; The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon; Kunstmuseum Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany; Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Lausanne, Switzerland; The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; Racine Museum of Art, Racine, Wisconsin; Museum of Arts and Design, New York, New York, Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, Ohio; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, Minnesota; and the Toledo Museum of Art—among many others.  In March 2009, he presented his solo exhibition New Art: Tom McGlauchlin at 20 North Gallery, which resulted in several pieces being purchased later that year for the collection of Sir Elton John.        

Tom McGlauchlin passed away on April 4, 2011 in Toledo, Ohio, where he maintained his own studio.  In June, 2012 his work was the focus of the Tom & Friends: A Tribute to McGlauchlin’s Legacy in Glass exhibit at 20 North Gallery, honoring his monumental contributions to the Studio Glass Movement.

Artist Raison de Être
Later Work
Since 1984, Tom McGlauchlin worked in several different directions. His major focus was investigating— through drawings of soft pastel and colored pencil on blown glass sculpture—abstractions of the human face as an indication of the human condition in all of its humor and tragedy.  He also explored those same concepts in hand-made paper and digital prints.

In 2004, Mr. McGlauchlin began working with fused glass in a variety of techniques, still investigating the human condition as seen in abstractions of the human face.  His last completed works were of his large-scale, fused, flat glass series.

Previous 20 North Gallery exhibitions including artwork by Tom McGlauchlin

For purchase inquiries, please contact 20 North Gallery:
419-241-2400  or  info@20northgallery.com