Chaim Gross

Who was Chaim Gross?

Chaim Gross was an Austrian born American sculptor. He was born in the then Austro-Hungarian village of Kolomyia and immigrated to the United States in 1921. His art studies began at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna shortly before he moved to the United States, where it continued at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design where he studied with Elie Nadelman and at the Art Students League of New York, with Robert Laurent.

Gross began exhibiting both his sculpture and graphic art in 1935, and was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in the summer of 1949.

Primarily Gross was a practitioner of the direct carving method, with the majority of his work being carved from wood. Works by Chaim Gross can be found in major museums and private collections throughout the United States.

Gross was a professor of printmaking and sculpture at both the Educational Alliance and the New School for Social Research in New York City, as well as a member of Artists Equity, the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. He was a founder and served as the first president of the Sculptors Guild. In 1979 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1981.