Henry DiSpirito

Who was Henry DiSpirito?

Henry DiSpirito was an Italian-American artist and sculptor.

Born in 1898 in Castelforte, Italy, DiSpirito went to America in 1921 where he found work as a stonemason. He settled in Utica, New York, where he worked as a stone cutter and took lessons at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute. In 1942 he worked for the Works Progress Administration and created dioramas about Utica's history. While attending a class at the Art Institute, he met Richard Davis, a sculpture teacher, who suggested Di Spirito should work with stone rather than with clay. This was the start of a new career of DiSpirito, whose work has become popular in New York's upstate.

Throughout his career as a mason and during his "retirement", he pursued his interest in painting and sculpture with an emphasis on animals and nature.

In addition to his grant from the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1956, DiSpirito received many other honors. At the age of 84 he won a prize at the National Academy of Design in New York for his sculpture "Ant". He exhibited in many group shows in major museums, among them the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.