Robert Grosvenor is an American sculptor, drawer, photographer, and installation artist initially associated with the Minimalist movement of the mid-1960s.
Read MoreGrosvenor's early work was huge, pristine, and non-referential. Later, it became more figurative, employing connections to narrative and incorporating used industrial materials that carried a history.
Though born in New York, Grosvenor had his tertiary education in Europe. He attended the École des Beaux-Arts, Dijon in 1956; the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris between 1957 and 1959; and the University of Perugia, Italy in 1958.
After settling in Philadelphia in 1960, Robert Grosvenor exhibited a number of large geometric works in major Minimalist shows such as Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum, New York (1966) and Minimal Art at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, The Hague in 1968. He was also one of ten artists who founded the cooperative Park Place Gallery in New York City.
Works such as Untitled (1968–1970), Untitled (Yellow) (1966), and Tenerife (1966) abruptly change shape as the viewer moves around them, and were often constructed using boat building techniques and suspended from the ceiling to vibrantly interact with the enclosing space.
However, Grosvenor's sculptural practice has not stayed slickly industrial in its finish, architecture-focussed, or non-referential. He has a tendency to cross art historical borders, and move in zigzagging directions.Some sculptures have consisted of simple elemental forms made of recycled concrete blocks, timber, plastic, steel, and corrugated iron. These include Untitled (2020), Untitled (1980–1981), Untitled (1991), and Untitled (1987–88).
Other sculptures are less fragmented, being organic, smooth, and unified, with soft round curves and bright colours, such as Untitled (2019).
Grosvenor has also made angular and flat hybrid vehicles that have futuristic science-fiction overtones merged with minimalism. See, for example, Aerocar (2014), Untitled (2014), 3 Wheeled Car (1969), and Untitled (2015–2017).
Sometimes he has installed small models of these vehicles on shelves attached to gallery walls, as seen in his self-titled solo exhibition at Karma gallery in 2020.
He also takes photographs for research purposes and sells them, although he does not consider them artworks.
Grosvenor is the recipient of the Ezratti Family Prize for Sculpture, ICA Miami (2020); an American Academy of Arts and Letters Grant (1972); a Guggenheim Fellowship (1970 and 1983); and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant (1970).
Robert Grosvenor has participated in many solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include 27 Pictures, Galerie Thierry Marlat, Paris (2020); Robert Grosvenor, Karma, New York (2020); New Works, Galerie Max Hetzler (2020); Robert Grosvenor, ICA Miami (2019); Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2018); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2017); Robert Grosvenor, Karma, New York (2017); Robert Grosvenor, Maccarone, Los Angeles (2017).
Group exhibitions include Robert Grosvenor and David Novros, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2021); Group Exhibition, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2019); Robert Grosvenor | Richard Prince, Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris (2018); Flat Out: Works on Paper, 1960–2000, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City (2018).
Grosvenor's work is held in the collections of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Storm King Art Center, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Serralves Foundation, Porto; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.
John Hurrell | Ocula | 2022
