Vincent Glinsky

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Vincent Glinsky (1895–1975) was an American sculptor best known for decorating buildings with sculpture and reliefs.

He was born in Russia and moved to the United States just before World War I, settling with his family in Syracuse, New York. He moved to New York City in 1916 and joined the first class of the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, where he later taught. He studied at Columbia University in 1925–26 and began focusing on architectural sculpture, working with the architect Albert Kahn on projects like the Maccabees Building.

Glinsky designed the entrance reliefs, bronze elevator doors, and a letterbox for the Fred F. French Building in New York (1927). He spent about two years in Europe beginning in 1927, living first in Rome and then in Paris, where he was part of L’Ecole de Paris. He had a solo show at Galerie Zak in 1929 and appeared in several group shows in Paris.

Returning to New York, Glinsky exhibited widely, with solo and group shows at major museums and galleries. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1935 and the Widener Gold Medal in 1936 for his sculpture The Awakening. As a Federal Art Project artist, he created bas-reliefs for U.S. post offices in Hudson, New York; Weirton, West Virginia; and Union City, Pennsylvania, and he demonstrated sculpture at the 1939 World’s Fair.

In 1937 he helped found the Sculptors Guild in New York and served as its Executive Secretary from 1955 to 1960. He was active in many arts organizations and served in World War II as a draftsman at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (1943–46).

Glinsky taught at Brooklyn College (1949–55), NYU (1950–75), and Columbia University (1957–62). His later work included panels for the National Institutes of Health, a Wilbur Wright bust for NYU’s Hall of Fame for Great Americans, a bronze head of Eleanor Roosevelt for the U.S. Department of Labor, and other public sculptures, including a large seal for the Tupperware Company.

He was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design in 1969 and became a full Academician in 1970. He died in New York City in 1975. After his death, NYU started the Vincent Glinsky Memorial Lecture, and the Sculptors Guild and Audubon Artists honored his memory with awards and exhibitions. His papers are kept at Syracuse University and the Smithsonian Institution. He was married to sculptor Cleo Hartwig, and his son Albert Glinsky is a composer and writer.