Chaim Gross

Drawing from a lifelong fascination with tribal art, Chaim Gross sculpted stylized forms from wood, alabaster, plaster, and bronze. Gross shared Alexander Calder’s captivation with the movement and uncanny affect of circus performers, an interest evident in the trapeze artists, jugglers, and acrobats that proliferate his oeuvre. Demonstrating a profound grasp of material, including the exotic woods he favored, such as lignum vitae, sandalwood, sabicu, cocobolo, and ebony, Gross hewed forms that responded to the color, texture, and weight of their medium. In Baby Balancing on Feet (1950), a curvilinear column of rich glossy wood culminates in the form of a baby’s head; Gross exploits the expressive potential of his material, leaving knotted lumps of the wood intact and whittling them down to reveal a marbled grain.