Discipline: Visual Art – sculpture

John Bergschneider

Discipline: Visual Art – sculpture
MacDowell Fellowships: 1953, 1967
Johnfried Georg Bergschneider (1920-1974) was a sculptor and educator. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. In his native city he underwent the rigors of the Boston Latin School and later studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts as the holder of a scholarship (1940-1942). A similar award enabled him to study at the Archipenko Art School (Woodstock, New York). A graduate of the Boston Museum School and a student at Harvard’s Fogg Museum. A term as a special student at Harvard University from 1941 to 1942 was followed by service in the Army Corps of Engineers (1942-1945) where he rose to rank of First Lieutenant. From 1945 to 1947, further study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He established and, from 1946 to 1950, directed a summer school of art on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, followed by employment as an instructor in sculpture at the newly established art center at the University of Arkansas (1950-1952). He ran the Nantucket School of Art in the late 1940’s and the early 1950’s, and was a sculpture instructor at the University of Arkansas starting in 1950. Since 1952 he has been an instructor in sculpture at the Cleveland (Ohio) Institute of Art. Bergschneider's works have been exhibited widely in the East and Midwest. One-man shows began in Boston in 1949. Among indications of distinction are first prize for sculpture at a show of New England sculpture and painting at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in 1949 and a like award at the Museum of Fine Arts in 1967.

Studios

Mixter

John Bergschneider worked in the Mixter studio.

Built in 1927–1930, the Florence Kilpatrick Mixter Studio was funded by its namesake and designed by the architect F. Winsor, Jr., who also designed MacDowell's original Savidge Library in 1925. Mixter Studio, solidly built of yellow and grey-hued granite, once had sweeping views of Pack Monadnock to the east. The lush forest has now grown…

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