Joseph Glasco

Joseph Glasco (January 19, 1925 – May 31, 1996) was an American abstract expressionist painter, draftsman and sculptor. He is most known for his early figurative drawings and paintings and in later years for deconstructing the figure to develop his non-objective paintings building on abstraction of the 1950s.

During his early years in New York, Alfonso Ossorio, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and others were friends and influences. Other influences on Glasco's art included Jean Dubuffet and Hans Hofmann. Later in his life, Glasco befriended younger artists including Julian Schnabel, and George Condo.

Joseph Glasco was born in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma in 1925 and grew up in Tyler, Texas. His parents were Lowell and Pauline Glasco. He had three brothers, Gregory, Gordon, Michael, and two sisters, Anne Brawley and Marion Chambers (married to oil executive C. Fred Chambers).

He was sent to boarding school in St. Louis where he pursued his interest in art and subsequently attended the University of Texas at Austin. He was drafted by the United States Army where he served in the European theatre during World War II. Glasco became a decorated soldier from his service as a Private first class in Patton's 3rd Army in the Battle of the Bulge where he earned a Bronze Star Medal. While waiting for his orders to return to the U.S. after VE Day, Glasco was assigned to Portsmouth Art School in Bristol, England, to study art. This enabled him to visit London and its theaters frequently. After Glasco's military orders arrived, he returned to Texas to seek employment.

Glasco lived and worked in Dallas for a time and drafted advertisements for the Dreyfuss & Son Department Store. When he realized advertising did not suit his interests, Glasco moved to Los Angeles to continue his art studies. There he met and briefly studied with Rico Lebrun at the Jeppson Art Institute. He then later studied at the School of Painting and Sculpture in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico founded by the Peruvian intellectual and artist Felipe Cassio del Pomar and the American Stirling Dickinson the director of artistic studies. In San Miguel de Allende, Glasco also became acquainted with Jesús Guerrero Galván as well as Rufino Tamayo and his wife.

In 1949, Glasco arrived in New York City and attended the Art Students League of New York where he studied with George Grosz. Glasco was soon recognized as a skilled draftsman and painter with a unique vision.

Shortly after Glasco arrived in New York City, he met Alfonso A. Ossorio, an artist and wealthy patron of the arts who introduced Glasco to his circle of artist friends including Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, Jean Dubuffet, and Clyfford Still. He was influenced by his friendship with Jackson Pollock and Alfonso A. Ossorio as well as the artwork of Dubuffet and the art theory of Hans Hofmann.

At the age of twenty-five, Glasco had his first one-man show at New York's prestigious Perls Gallery. After his successful exhibition at Perls, Glasco became the youngest artist featured in an collection of abstract expressionists' works at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His work "Big Sitting Cat" was purchased for the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art when the museum acquired his drawing in 1949. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also acquired one of Glasco's 1949 drawings and his career as a New York artist was launched. When Perls closed, Glasco moved to the Catherine Viviano Gallery, which also managed the estate of Max Beckmann and several other important European and American artists. Glasco met the well-known Picasso collector Stanley J. Seeger at the Catherine Viviano Gallery. Seeger became one of Glasco's most important patrons and the two remained friends until his death. Another important collector of Glasco's paintings and sculptures was Joseph Hirshhorn. The Smithsonian Institution established the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., in 1966 to hold the collection of over 6,000 works including Glasco's paintings and sculptures. Pulitzer Prizing winning poet and short story writer, Elizabeth Bishop also collected Glasco's early drawings. Glasco would remain with the Catherine Viviano Gallery until the gallery closed in 1970.