Schnier, Jacques, 1898-1988

Sculptor and professor of art, University of California at Berkeley.

Sculptor, teacher; San Francisco, Calif.

Born in Romania. Taught at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jacques Schnier (1898-1988) was a modernist sculptor, mural painter and teacher.

Born in Romania, Schnier was brought to the United States in 1903 by his parents. He graduated from Stanford in 1920 with a degree in engineering but shortly thereafter turned his interest to city planning. The art courses he was required to take as part of his architecture studies led him from city planning to a successful career as a sculptor and muralist, and over the course of his productive life he won numerous awards for his own work as well as for public commissions, including statues and bas-reliefs for the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939-1940. He was also interested in mental health and psychoanalysis, publishing numerous articles in professional journals on the subject. He was on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley for thirty years (1936-1966) and was instrumental in establishing both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in sculpture.