Harvey Littleton - As A Ceramist

As A Ceramist

In 1949 Littleton enrolled as a graduate student in ceramics at Cranbrook Academy of Art. That same year, he accepted a position teaching ceramics at the Toledo Museum of Art School of Design, commuting between Toledo and Bloomfield Hills weekly. For that portion of the week that Littleton was in Toledo, he stayed at the apartment of artist Hal Lotterman. There, at one of Lotterman's Wednesday night poker games, Littleton met Dominick Labino, who would be important to the success of Littleton's first glass workshop a dozen years later.

Littleton's production as a potter focused on functional stoneware that he sold in Chicago-area art fairs and in galleries from Chicago to New York City. His work was included in group shows in the United States, including "Designer Craftsmen U.S.A.," sponsored by the American Craft Council in 1953 and the Ceramic National exhibition at the Syracuse Museum of Art in 1954. His pottery gained international exposure in 1956 at the First International Exposition of Ceramics in Cannes, France.