Glenna Goodacre

Glenna Goodacre (1939–2020) was one of the most celebrated figurative sculptors of the American West, working from her studio in Santa Fe for over four decades and consistently demonstrating a technical mastery of the human figure matched by an extraordinary emotional range. Her bronzes move from intimate portrait busts to monumental public commissions, from playful figures of children at play to works of genuine moral weight addressing the nation's most difficult history. She is best known for two works of national significance. The Vietnam Women's Memorial (1993), which stands permanently on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., depicts three military women and a wounded soldier in a composition of great tenderness and sorrow - the first memorial on the Mall to honor women who served in Vietnam. The monument has become a place of pilgrimage for veterans, families, and anyone who wishes to acknowledge the full human cost of the war. For the obverse of the Sacagawea dollar coin (2000), Goodacre won the commission in open competition and received a $5,000 payment she donated entirely to the Vietnam Women's Memorial Foundation. Beyond these landmark works, Goodacre's output was enormous and consistently high in quality: bronze portraits of children with an ability to capture a specific gesture or expression that feels startlingly alive; figures of women in movement that combine classical mass with contemporary lightness; public commissions for universities, hospitals, and civic spaces throughout the country. Her studio in Santa Fe became a gathering place for the city's artistic community, and her generosity to younger artists was widely noted. She was awarded the Prix de West Purchase Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and numerous other honors. She was a defining presence in the Santa Fe art world and in the broader tradition of American figurative sculpture.