Guide to the Sibyl Barsky Grucci Photographs, 1928-2001
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- The Sibyl Barsky Grucci photographs
- Creator
- Grucci, Sibyl Barsky, 1905-2007
- Collection Number
- MSP#423
- Extent
- .5 linear feet (1 box)
- Date
- 1928-2001
- Abstract
- Sibyl Barsky Grucci had a long career as a sculptor based first in Pittsburgh and later in State College, Pa. They consist primarily of photographic images of Grucci's sculptures in wood, stone, and metal from throughout her career.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
History
Sibyl Barsky Grucci had a long career as a sculptor based first in Pittsburgh and later in State College, Pa. She was born in Russia on March 20, 1905, and came to Pittsburgh with her family at the age of eight. Her father was a cabinetmaker and woodcarver. By the age of twelve, Sibyl had experienced the deaths of a sister close to her in age and of both of her parents. She and her older sister Belle supported and cared for their four younger brothers. Sibyl studied painting briefly at Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) but was self-taught as a sculptor.
Sibyl Barsky began to show her work in the Pittsburgh area in the early 1930s, and her portrait bust of Pittsburgh businessman Morris Rom won the New Sculpture Prize at the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh exhibition in 1934. During this period, Sibyl Barsky's sculpture was favorably reviewed by Douglas Naylor, the art editor of the Pittsburgh Press. Among her Pittsburgh artist friends were Samuel Rosenberg, Sam Filner, and William Wolfson. At the suggestion of Samuel Rosenberg, Barsky taught art during one summer term at the Irene Kaufman Settlement.
In the late 1930s Barsky was employed as part of the Pittsburgh group of the Federal Art Project, a program of the Works Progress Administration. Artists were put on salary and provided with materials with which they created works of art for schools, museums, and other civic institutions. The Pittsburgh group of six artists was headed by William McDermott and also included Esther Phillips and Mary Shaw Marohnic.
On September 24, 1940, Sibyl Barsky married Joseph L. Grucci, a poet and professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh and then at Penn State University in State College, Pa., where the Gruccis made their permanent home beginning in 1950. Sibyl's studio there was in a former one-room schoolhouse.
Sibyl Barsky Grucci worked in clay, wood, stone, and bronze. Her sculpture has been exhibited in Pittsburgh and other cities in the northeastern United Sates. Many of her works were commissioned privately and are now in private collections throughout the United States. A notable public installation is a bronze bust of Fred Lewis Pattee, a popular Penn State professor; the bust is in the foyer of the Penn State library named after Pattee. The Grucci Poetry Center at Penn State, endowed by Sibyl after the death of her husband, has become the home of "The Young Dancer," a limestone piece first exhibited at the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh show in 1935. Grucci's bronze bust of Hyman Blum is on display at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center in Pittsburgh.
Scope and Content Notes
The Sibyl Barsky Grucci Photographs are housed in one archival box. They consist primarily of photographic images of Grucci's sculptures in wood, stone, and metal from throughout her career. There are also a few photographs of paintings or drawings by Grucci. The photographs have been arranged, as closely as possible, according to the numbers and titles on a list compiled by the artist and her family. This list is housed in Folder 1 and contains additional information about the type and disposition of the works. Dates are generally not provided on this list. In a few cases they are noted on the backs of the photographs, and further information about dates may be obtained by comparing the photographs with items in the "Newsclippings" file, MSS#423, Folder 12. In several cases two or more numbered items have been combined into one folder, with a corresponding note on the master list. Images that have not been matched with items on the list are in Folder 69, "Unidentified Images". Images not on the list include a self-portrait bust of Grucci; a 1928 photograph of Grucci (additional photographic images of Grucci may be found in Folders 11, 14, 46, and 48, and in MSS#423, Folder 12, "Newsclippings"); undated portraits of Julia Gregg Brill (see MSS#423, Folder 14); and a commercial photograph of the Roman Arena in Verona, Italy. One folder contains photographs of Grucci's husband Joseph L. Grucci, taken in 1948 at a poetry reading at the University of Pittsburgh, sponsored by the American Association of University Women, along with a proof sheet of informal portraits of Joseph L. Grucci, taken in 1967 on the Penn State University campus.
Conditions Governing Access
No Restrictions.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Sibyl Barsky Grucci in in May, 2005.
Preferred Citation
Sibyl Barsky Grucci Photographs, 1921-2005, MSP#423, Rauh Jewish Archives, Senator John Heinz History Center
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Martha L. Berg on November 7, 2005. Revisions and additions by Martha L. Berg on February 1, 2010.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Senator John Heinz History Center. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Library and Archives of the Senator John Heinz History Center.
Related Materials
See also the papers of Sibyl Barsky Grucci's siblings William Barsky MSS#500 and Belle Barsky MFF#4846.
Subjects
- Associated Artists of Pittsburgh (Pa.)
- Federal Art Project (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- United States. Works Progress Administration
- Grucci, Sibyl Barsky (1905-)
- Grucci, Joseph L. (1911-1982)
- Pattee, Fred Lewis
- Blum, Hyman
- Frank, Jacob H.
- Filner, Samuel
- Artists--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh (Pa.)
- Sculpture--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh (Pa.)
- Jews--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh (Pa.)
- Women, Jewish--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh (Pa.)