Nancy Grossman
| Nancy Grossman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 28, 1940 New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Pratt Institute |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Movement | Feminist Art |
| Awards | Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award (2008) |
Nancy Grossman (born April 28, 1940) is an American feminist artist. Grossman is best known for her wood and leather sculptures of heads.
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. There, she began helping her parents at work making darts, 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 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree under the tutelage of Richard Lindner, in 1962. She then traveled Europe after earning Pratt's Ida C. Haskell Award for Foreign Travel.
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 and her love for material exploration. At 23, Grossman had her first solo exhibition at the Kasner gallery in New York City. Her artwork included collages, constructions, drawings, and paintings. In 1964 she moved to Elderidge Street in Chinatown and continued to work there. Her move afforded her more space, so she began assembling free standing pieces and wall assemblages of at least six feet by four feet.
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 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. 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 and gender fluidity. 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. Grossman plays with images of violence and sex as a way to explore her childhood abuse. Grossman describes her work as a form of surrender, allowing things to flow from her and trusting that it will work out.Head from 1968, in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art, is typical of the wood and leather sculptures of heads for which the artist is best known.
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