ANTIQUE PAINTINGS
Chaim GROSS (Ukrainian-American, 1902-1991)
Chaim Gross was one of the most important American sculptors of the 20th century. Along with other noted sculptors William
Zorach and Jose de Creeft, Gross was primarily a practitioner of the direct carving method, and a majority of his work was
carved from wood. Born in Ukraine in 1904, Gross studied at the art academy in Budapest under painter Béla Uitz, followed by
art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna. He immigrated to the United States with two of his brothers in 1921 and
continued his studies at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design with Elie Nadelman and others, and the Art Students League with
sculptor and direct carver Robert Laurent. He also attended the Educational Alliance Art School at the same time as Peter
Blume, Adolph Gottlieb and Moses and Raphael Soyer. Thereafter, Gross began an illustrious career that included important
public commissions via his work for the Works Progress Administration and solo and group shows at prestigious galleries and
museums such as the Whitney and the Smithsonian. Gross was also recognized with a silver medal at the Exposition
Universelle de 1937 in Paris and 1942 with a purchase prize at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Artists for Victory exhibition
for his wood sculpture of famed circus performer Lillian Leitzel. Gross also had a long career as a professor of printmaking and
sculpture at various institutions including the The New School for Social Research, Art Students League and New Art School
(which Gross ran briefly with fellow artists Alexander Dobkin and Moses and Raphael Soyer). But he had his longest tenure of 50
years as a professor at his alma mater, the Educational Alliance Art School, where he taught Louise Nevelson in 1934 and helped
guide her transition from painter to one of the most important female sculptors of her generation. Gross received multiple
honorary doctorates in the 70s and 80s and his work can be found in major museums and private collections throughout the
United States, with substantial holdings at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. Gross died in 1991.
Title: "Nudes"
*Signed LR
Year: 1924
Medium: Original Pencil and
Watercolor on Paper
Framed size: 22.63" x 18.63"
Sheet size: 15.13" x 11.13"
Image size: 14.38" x 10.13"
Price: SOLD
Title: "Seven Dancing Acrobats"
*Signed LR
Year: 1927
Medium: Original Pencil and
Watercolor on Paper
Framed size: 12.5" x 21.5"
Sheet size: 5.63" x 14.88"
Image size: 4.75" x 14"
Price: SOLD
FINE ART INVESTMENTS SINCE 1978