Collection Information
Size: 0.5 Linear feet
Summary: The papers of Joseph J. Greenberg measure 0.5 linear feet and date from 1939-1989. The papers document Greenberg's career through biographical materials, including resumes and award certificates, professional correspondence, and printed material such as news clipping and exhibition catalogs. Also found is a scrapbook which contains clippings and catalogs, press releases, correspondence regarding his sculptures, a poem Greenberg wrote and notes. Photographic material contains photographs of Greenberg, his colleagues, and his artwork.
Biographical/Historical Note
Joseph J. Greenberg (1915-1991) was a sculptor and educator from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Greenberg first became interested in sculpture as a child while attending the Oak Lane Country Day School and meeting sculptor Boris Blai, who was working as the school's art teacher. Years later Greenberg discovered Blai had become the director of the Tyler School of Art at Temple University prompting him to transfer there from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he had been studying engineering. Greenberg graduated from the Tyler School of Art in 1939 as a member of the first class of Tyler's complete five-year program. He went on to study in Italy where he had his first solo show in Rome and exhibited in the twenty sixth Venice Biennale. In 1951, Greenberg was the winner of a prize from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's National Sculpture Exhibition. He returned to Philadelphia in 1953 and continued living and working in the city until his death in 1991.
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Provenance
Donated 1991 by Sheila Greenberg, Joseph's widow, except for the photograph albums which were lent for microfilming. Collected and microfilmed as part of AAA's Philadelphia Arts Documentation Project.
Related Materials
The Archives of American Art also holds microfilm of material lent for microfilming (reel 4566) including two photograph albums containing photographs of Greenberg's sculptures. Loaned materials were returned to the lender, Mrs. Sheila Greenberg, and are not described in the collection container inventory.
Language Note
English .
Funding Note
The processing of this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care and Preservation Fund, administered by the National Collections Program and the Smithsonian Collections Advisory Committee.