Maurice Heaton (1900–1990) was a Swiss-born American

glass artist Studio glass is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional work of art, artworks in the fine arts. The glass objects created are typically intended to make a sculptural or decorative statement, rathe ...

, of English ancestry. His glass work ranged in subject, and included work in window hangings, murals, lighting fixtures, and tableware. For most of his life he lived in the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

Valley Cottage Valley Cottage is a hamlet and census-designated place within Clarkstown, located in Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located northeast of West Nyack, northwest of Central Nyack, east of Bardonia, south of Congers, northwest ...

in Rockland County, New York, U.S.. pp
114
/ref> In 1985, Heaton was elected as a fellow of the

American Craft Council The American Craft Council (ACC) is a national non-profit organization that champions craft based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1943 by Aileen Osborn Webb, the council hosts national craft shows and conferences, publishes a quarterly m ...

(ACC).

Biography

Maurice Heaton was born in 1900 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, to English parents. His father and grandfather were glass artists. In 1914 during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, his family moved to New York state, and by 1919 the family settled in Valley Cottage, New York which was a rural area at the time. Heaton attended the

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a Private university, private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely de ...

in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he studied engineering. After leaving college he worked under his father Clement Heaton, as a stained-glass artist assistant. He had invented a process in 1947 for creating

glassware upTypical drinkware. This list of glassware includes drinking vessels (drinkware), tableware used to set a table for eating a meal and generally glass items such as vases, and glasses used in the catering industry. It does not include laboratory ...

in the studio furnace, and was later part of the 1960s studio glass movement. His glass studio was in Valley Cottage, New York; it experienced three major fires in 1974, in 1981, and the last fire being in 1988. It took him a year and a half to rebuild his glass studio after the 1988 fire, shortly before his death in April 6, 1990. Heaton's artwork can be found in museum collections, including at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

Museum of Arts and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the ...

, the

Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning (city), New York, Corning, New York, United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Incorporated, Corning Glass Works and currently has a ...

, the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, and the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM; formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds one of the world's lar ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heaton, Maurice 1900 births 1990 deaths 20th-century American male artists American glass artists British glass artists People from Valley Cottage, New York Stevens Institute of Technology alumni Swiss emigrants to the United States