Nancy Grossman (born April 28, 1940) is an American artist. Grossman is best known for her wood and leather sculptures of heads.

Early life and education

Nancy Grossman was born in 1940 in New York City to parents who worked in the garment industry. She moved at the age of five to

Oneonta, New York Oneonta ( ) is a city in southern Otsego County, New York, United States. It is one of the northernmost cities of the Appalachian Region. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, Oneonta had a population of 13,079. Its nickname is "City of the Hil ...

. There, she began helping her parents at work making

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, which are three-dimensional folds sewn into fabric to give shape; and gussets, which are materials sewn into fabric to strengthen a garment. Her experience in sewing influenced her work as an artist. Grossman studied at

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree under the tutelage of Richard Lindner, in 1962. Grossman’s paintings, collages, and sculpture come out of a distinctly individual understanding of the psychological reality of contemporary life. She then traveled Europe after earning Pratt's Ida C. Haskell Award for Foreign Travel."Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: Feminist Art Base: Nancy Grossman." and a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1965–66). The accolades have continued throughout her career and include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1984), a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (1991), a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (1996–97), and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2001). When she began making art her work was largely collage and drawings. She was working in the 1960s, when Abstract Expression was popular, and she was torn between

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

and her love for material exploration.Nancy Grossman: Tough Life Diary At 23, Grossman had her first solo exhibition at the Kasner gallery in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Her artwork included collages, constructions, drawings, and paintings. In 1964 she moved to Eldridge Street in

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

and continued to work there. Her move afforded her more space, so she began assembling free standingpieces and wall assemblages of at least six feet by four feet. In 1972, Grossman signed the "We Have Had Abortions" campaign by ''Ms.'' magazine which called for an end to "archaic laws" limiting reproductive freedom, they encouraged women to share their stories and take action. Her image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by

Mary Beth Edelson Mary Beth Edelson (born Mary Elizabeth Johnson) (6 February 1933 - 20 April 2021) was an American artist and pioneer of the feminist art movement, deemed one of the notable "first-generation feminist artists." Edelson was a printmaker, book art ...

. Grossman relocated to Brooklyn in 1999 after being forced to leave her Chinatown studio which she had occupied for thirty-five year

Her work also struck out in new directions with a group of sculptural assemblages that seem to echo the archaeology and violence involved in the upheaval of her move.

Art

Grossman is probably most well known for her work with figures sculpted from soft wood and then covered in leather. Grossman first used wood, generally soft and "found," such as old telephone poles, and carefully sculpts heads and bodies. The very first head that she created incorporated the use of black leather, epoxy, thread, wood, and metal.Johnson, Ken. 2011. "Blind Ambition of Leather-Clad Heads." The original head quickly evolved into an ongoing series of roughly 100 heads, which is still being created in her Brooklyn studio to this day. The heads she sculpted early in her career were "blind" as the eyes were covered by leather; however, openings were always left for the noses. Grossman explains that she wanted to release some of the tension and let the figure breathe.Bjornland, Karen. 2012. "Nancy Grossman exhibit tells tale about intriguing heads."http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2012/may/03/0503_grossman/ Her attention to detail is seen in her workmanship, with each stitch of leather sewn carefully. The sculpture Male Figure (1971), is one of her full-bodied forms. Grossman uses leather, straps, zippers, and string to create sculptures that appear bound and restrained. She describes her work as autobiographical, and despite figures like Male Figure, which has male genitalia, she says her sculptures are self-portraits. Others have reviewed her work as seemingly sexual and reminiscent of sadism and masochism, which Grossman denies. She says her work challenges the ideas of

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

and gender fluidity.Getsy, David "Second Skins: The Unbound Genders of Nancy Grossman's Sculpture," in ''Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender'' (Yale 2015) and Swartz, Anne. "The Erotics of Envelopment Figuration in Nancy Grossman's Art," Grossman says the sculptures refer to her "bondage in childhood," but others have said that her work may flirt with the potential of female artists who had not yet gained prominence in the 1960s. ''Head'' from 1968, in the collection of the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

, is typical of the wood and leather sculptures of heads for which the artist is best known.

Recent work

Some of her later work, such as Black Lava Scape from her series Combustion Scapes (1994–95) are mixed media collages created from found objects. Another piece in the series Self-Contained Lavascape (1991) is a mixed media collage drawing. According to a review in the New York Times, these pieces were inspired by a helicopter flight over an active volcano in Hawaii. In 1995, Grossman sustained an injury to her hand which made working with sculpture very difficult. After an operation to rebuild part of her hand, she was left with limited mobility, which is what led her to go back to her work with collage and painting. Recently, her work has been shown in major museum exhibitions. In the summer of 2011, PS1-MoMA presented a solo exhibition of her sculptural heads, and in 2012, the Tang Museum at Skidmore College presented Nancy Grossman: Tough Life, a five-decade survey. Throughout her impressive career, Grossman has received a steady flow of accolades, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1984), a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (1991), a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant (1996–97), and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2001), and her work is represented in the permanent collections of museums worldwide.

Censorship

In 2009, the

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censored her postcard, for her etchings of a book by

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "th ...

Exhibitions

*1990 "Nancy Grossman: A Retrospective", Hillwood Art Museum, Brookville, NY *1995 "Nancy Grossman: Opus Volcanus", Hooks-Epstein Galleries *2000 "Nancy Grossman: Fire Fields", The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center *2001 "Nancy Grossman: Loud Whispers, Four Decades of Assemblage, Collages and Sculpture", Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York *2007 "Nancy Grossman: Drawings", Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, NY *2011 "Nancy Grossman: Combustion Scapes", Michael Rosenfeld Gallery *2011 "Nancy Grossman: Heads", MoMA PS-1, New York City *2012 "Nancy Grossman", Frances Young Tang Museum *February 28, 2014 – August 16, 2014 "Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection"https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/roby

Awards

*1962: Ida C. Haskell Award for Foreign Travel, Pratt Institute *1965-66: John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship *1966: Inaugural Contemporary Achievement Award, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY *1970: One Hundred Women In Touch With Our Time, Harper’s Bazaar Magazine *1973: Juror, New York State Council on the Arts, sculpture applicants for CAPS Fellowships *1974: Commencement Speaker and Honored Guest, 99th Commencement Exercises, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA *1974: American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Institute of Arts and Letters Award *1974: Juror, American Academy in Rome, sculpture applicants for Prix de Rome Fellowships *1975: Elected to Membership, National Society of Literature and the Arts *1984: National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Sculpture *1990: The Hassam, Speicher, Betts and Symons Purchase Award, The American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters *1991: Artist’s Fellowship in Sculpture, The New York Foundation for the Arts *1991-92: Nancy Grossman at Exit Art, The Hillwood Art Museum and the Sculpture Center selected one of the three best exhibitions in an art gallery of this season by The American Chapter of the International Art Critics Association *1992: Elected into the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

as an Associate member (became a full Academician in 1994). *1995: Alumnae Achievement Award, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY *1996-97 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant *2001: Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant *2008:

Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award The Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award was established under the presidency of Lee Ann Miller (1978–80). Joan Mondale, artist and wife of vice-president Walter Mondale, helped to secure approval for a national award honoring women' ...

Bibliography

*''Nancy Grossman: loud whispers: four decades of assemblage, collage and sculpture'', Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, 2000, * * Ian Berry, ed., ''Nancy Grossman: Tough Life Diary'' etrospective(Saratoga Springs, New York: Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College with Prestel USA, 2013). * David J. Getsy, "Second Skins: The Unbound Genders of Nancy Grossman's Sculpture," in ''Abstract Bodies: Sixties Sculpture in the Expanded Field of Gender'' (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015), 147–207.

References

External links

Works by Nancy Grossman
at

Smithsonian Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

Nancy Grossman
( Clara database,

National Museum of Women in the Arts The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Grossman, Nancy 1940 births Pratt Institute alumni American women sculptors Living people Artists from New York City 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American sculptors 21st-century American women artists 21st-century American sculptors People from Oneonta, New York Sculptors from New York (state) People from Chinatown, Manhattan People from Brooklyn