ROBERT GROSVENOR
Since the 1960s, Robert Grosvenor (b. 1937) has produced a diverse oeuvre, encompassing his primary medium sculpture, alongside a selection of photographs and works on paper. Through a strong material presence, his works question notions of balance and imbalance, mass and line, movement and stagnation, baring the complexities and contradictions of spacial dynamics. Although presenting a minimalist aesthetic, Grosvenor’s sculptures and objects have never adopted Minimalism’s programmatic claims. Rather, they are imbued with a certain sensual directness. In a playful and mischievous way, the artist explores the limits of materials and forms, combining and confronting seemingly dissimilar elements within a given space.
‘Robert Grosvenor’s works are strange not only, and perhaps not even primarily, because of the forms and materials that they use. They are strange because of the structure of inversion that informs them. This structure closes the works in upon themselves, and bends all references (strange or not) back on the sculpture itself. […] One stands in front of the sculpture […] one walks around it, enters its space, sees everything, recognizes everything, and is still not in a position to make it match up with what these things usually are. […] There is nothing but to accept the sculpture and its individual elements as that what they are under the conditions of this sculpture. It protects the sculpture and its elements against all kinds of consumption.’
U. Loock, ‘Perfect Ambiguity’, in Robert Grosvenor, Museu Serralves, 2005
Image: Untitled, 2014, wood, fiberglass, aluminium, acrylic. Motor - 2000, aluminium, steel, overall: 61 x 495.3 x 152.4 cm.; 24 x 195 x 60 in. Photo: def image
Selected Works
Solo Exhibitions
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
Biography
VITA
1937
Born in New York, USA
1956
Ecole des Beaux Arts, France
1957–1959
Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Lives and works in East Patchogue, USA
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield
Direction Régionale des Affaires, Rennes
Edward R. Broida Trust, Los Angeles
FRAC Bretagne, Châteaugiron
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
Lannan Foundation, Los Angeles
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Modern Art New York
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Karma, New York
2023
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
2022
Karma, Los Angeles
Galerie Greta Meert, Brussels
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2021
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
2020
27 pictures
Galerie Thierry Marlat, Paris (catalogue)
New Works
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
Karma, New York
2019
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
2018
Robert Grosvenor I Richard Prince
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
2017
Maccarone, Los Angeles
Karma, New York
The Renaissance Society, Chicago
2015
Paula Cooper, New York
2014
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
Karma, New York
2012
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
2010
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
2007
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
2005
Fundação de Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto (catalogue)
Albatrun
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2004
Untitled, 1968
Art Omi, Sculpture & Architecture Park, Ghent
2003
The Arts Club of Chicago
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
2000
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1998
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1996
Lawrence Markey, New York
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1995
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
1993
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1992
Kunsthalle, Bern (catalogue)
Galerie Max Hetzler, Cologne
1991
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1990
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
1989
Centre d'Art Contemporain du Domaine de Kerguehennec à Bignan, Locmine (catalogue)
1988
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1986
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1984
P.S.1, The Institute for Art and Urban Resources, Long Island City
1981
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1978
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1977
Galerie Eric Fabre, Paris
1976
The Clocktower, Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York
1975
Galerie Stampa, Basel
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Galerie Eric Fabre, Paris
Pasguale Tridorio, Naples
1974
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Françoise Lambert, Milan
1971
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla
1970
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Fischbach Gallery, New York
Galerie Ricke, Cologne
1967
Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles
Park Place, New York
1965
Park Place, New York
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Course of Works
Hangar Y, Meudon
2022
The 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia: The Milk of Dreams
Venice
A Show About Nothing
BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou
2017
Strange Attractors. The Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Art. Vol.1 Life on Earth
Redling Fine Art, Los Angeles
Artist Run New York: The Seventies
Jean-Paul Najar Foundation, Dubai
Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959–1971
Resnick Pavilion, LACMA, Los Angeles
2015
Flat World
David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
Dissolving Margins
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
2014
Mind & Matter
Fonds M-Arco Le Box, Marseille
Zu Gast (4). Conceptual Space - Arbeiten aus der Sammlung Markus Michalke
Kunstsaele, Berlin
2013
LAT. 41° 7'N., LONG. 72° 19'W.
Martos Gallery, New York
2012
Der Raum der Linie
Museum Wiesbaden
2011
zoom, shift, abstract
Simone Subal Gallery, New York
2010
Whitney Biennial
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Singular Visions
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
2009
Compass in Hand: Selections from the Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary
Drawings Collection Museum of Modern Art, New York (catalogue)
2008
Every Revolution is a Roll of the Dice, curated by Bob Nickas
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
2007
A Roll of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance, curated by Bob Nickas
Marfa Ballroom
2006
Against the Grain: Contemporary Art from the Edward R. Broida Collection
The Museum of Modern Art, New York (catalogue)
Was ist Plastik? 100 Jahre – 100 Köpfe: Das Jahrhundert moderner Skulptur Stiftung
Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Center of International Sculpture, Duisburg
Still Points of the Turning World: Site Santa Feʼs Sixth International Biennial
curated by Klaus Ottmann, Site Santa Fe
Plane/Figure: Amerikanische Kunst aus Schweizer Sammlungen
Kunstmuseum Winterthur
2004
Genesis Sculpture, Experience Pommery #1
Domaine Pommery, Reims (catalogue)
2003
Large-Scale Sculpture: Andre, Grosvenor, LeWitt
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
It happened tomorrow
Biennale DʼArt Contemporain de Lyon 2003, Lyon (catalogue)
2002
Drawings of Choice from a New York Collection
Kannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (catalogue)
2001
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Marzona Villa Manin: a private collection
Villa Manin, Passariano (catalogue)
2000
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1999
Forum: Robert Grosvenor, Andreas Gursky, John Wesley
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Afterimage: Drawing through Process
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (catalogue)
Dessiner est un autre langage
Musée de Picardie, Amiens
Posters Exhibition
Lawrence Markey, New York
Sculptorsʼ Drawings
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1998
Amnesty International Benefit Drawing Show
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1996
From Figure to Object: A Century of Sculptorʼs Drawings
Karsten Schubert, London (catalogue)
1995
American Sculptors in the 1960s: Selected Drawings from the Collection
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
1994
Country Sculpture
le consortium, Dijon
From Minimal to Conceptual Art: Works from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (catalogue)
Holiday Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1993
Art on Paper
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro
25 Years (Part I)
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1992
then & NOW
Philippe Staib Gallery, New York (catalogue)
1991
30th Anniversary Series: Sixties
John Gibson Gallery, New York
1990
L'Aventure de L'Abstraction: 1960–1990
Foundation Deutsch, Belmont-Sur-Lausanne (catalogue)
1989
Works on Paper
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1988
Linien: Arbeiten auf Papier
Galerie Rolf Ricke, Cologne
1987
The Success of Failure
Laumeier Sculpture Park and Gallery, St. Louis, travelled to:
Johnson Gallery, Middlebury College;
University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tuscon (catalogue)
L'Epoque, La Mode, La Morale, La Passion: Aspects de l'art d'aujourd'hui 1977–1987
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (catalogue)
Art Against Aids: A Benefit Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
documenta 8, Kassel (catalogue)
Changing Group Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
AMFAR
Dia Art Foundation, New York
1986
Works from the Paula Cooper Gallery
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco (catalogue)
1985
The Maximal Implications of the Minimal Line
Edith C. Blum Art Institute, Milton and Sally Avery Center for the Arts, The Bard College Center, Annandale-on-Hudson (catalogue)
Giacometti to Johns: The Albert and Vera List Family Collection
Hayden Gallery, Albert and Vera List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Sculpture
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Independent Curators Incorporated 10th Anniversary Benefit Auction
The Puck Building, New York
Changing Sculpture Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1984
Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Drawings by Sculptors: Two Decades of Non-Objective Art in the Seagram Collection
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, travelled to:
Vancouver Art Gallery;
The Nickle Arts Museum Calgary, Calgary;
Seagram Building, New York;
London Regional Art Gallery, London
American Sculpture
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles
1983
Objects, Structures, Artifice: American Sculpture 1970–1982
SVC/Fine Arts Gallery, University of South Florida, Tampa (catalogue)
1982
Drawings from the Collection of Milton Brutten and Helen Herrick
Ben Shahn Galleries, William Paterson College, Wayne (catalogue)
postMINIMALism
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield (catalogue)
1981
Sculptors' Drawings and Macquettes
Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York
Amerikanische Zeichnungen der Siebziger Jahre
Lousiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, travelled to:
Kunsthalle Basel;
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich;
Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen (catalogue)
1979
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
The Minimal Tradition
The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield (catalogue)
15th Anniversary Exhibition
Fischbach Gallery, New York
Tendencies in American Drawings of the Late Seventies
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
1978
Private Images: Photographs by Sculptors
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Drawings for Outdoor Sculpture: 1946–1977
Amherst College, Amherst, travelled to:
University of California, Santa Barbara;
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Group Show
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1977
Travaux sur Papier
Galerie G. Mollet-Vielle, Paris
Documenta 6, Kassel (catalogue)
Group Show
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
American Drawing 1927–1977
Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul (catalogue)
New York, The State of Art
New York State Museum, Albany
Drawings for Outdoor Sculpture: 1946–1977
John Weber Gallery, New York
Drawings and Prints: New York
Rush Rhees Gallery, University of Rochester
1976
200 Years of American Sculpture
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (catalogue)
Sculptor's Drawings
Fine Arts Building, New York
Biennale of Sydney
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Gallery Group Show
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1975
Sculptor's Drawings
Loretta Yarlow Gallery, Toronto
Zeichnungen III
Städtisches Museum, Leverkusen (catalogue)
Selections from the Collection of Herb and Dorothy Vogel
The Clocktower, New York
ArtPark
Lewiston, New York
Tendences Actuelles de la Peinture Américaine
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (catalogue)
Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture of the 60's and 70's from the Herb and Dorothy Vogel Collection
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (catalogue)
1973
Three New Works by Robert Grosvenor, Forrest Myers, Richard Nonas
Graduate Center, The City University, New York
Biennial Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Opening Group Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Works on Paper
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond (catalogue)
Fall Group Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Drawings and Other Work
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1972
New York 72
Paula Cooper Gallery Exhibition, Greenwich
Eight
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (catalogue)
Group Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Group Exhibition
10 Bleecker Street, New York
Drawings by Sculptors
Lo Guidice Gallery, New York
1971
Sonsbeek 71
Sonsbeek Park, Arnheim (catalogue)
11th International Biennial Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition
Middelheim Museum, Antwerp
Works on Paper: 31st Annual Exhibition
The Society for Contemporary Art, The Art Institute of Chicago
Paula Cooper Gallery Exhibition
Windham College, Putney
Changing Group Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1970
Drawings
Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson
Art on Paper
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
Monumental Art
Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati
Art on Paper
The Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Art for Your Collection
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
Drawing Exhibition
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
1969
The Artist and the Factory
University Gallery, Minneapolis
14 Sculptors: The Industrial Edge
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Contemporary American Art
Whitney Museum of Art, New York (catalogue)
1968
Plus by Minus
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Minimal Art
Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, travelled to:
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf;
Akademie der Künste, Berlin (catalogue)
Sculpture Annual
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1967
American Sculpture for the 60's
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Sculpture for the 60's
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
Art for the City
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
Bladen, Grosvenor, Von Schlegell
Loeb Student Center, New York University, New York
A.F.A. Travelling Drawing Exhibition
Park Place, New York
Park Place Group Exhibition
Friends of Contemporary Art, Denver
1966
Primary Structures
The Jewish Museum, New York
Drawing Exhibition
New York University, New York
1965
American Express Pavillion
New York World's Fair, New York
Park Place, New York
Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles
1964
Welfare Island Art Festival, New York
John Daniels Gallery, New York
Park Place, New York
Royal Marks Gallery, New York
Noah Goldowsky Gallery, New York
1963
Park Place, New York
1962
Park Place, New York
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Monographs
Karma (Ed.): Robert Grosvenor. 27 Pictures, New York, 2015
Karma (Ed.): Robert Grosvenor. 32 Pictures, New York, 2014
Fundação de Serralves (Ed.): Robert Grosvenor, Porto, 2005
Kunsthalle Bern (Ed.): Robert Grosvenor, Bern, 1992
Centre dʼArt Contemporain du Domaine de Kerguehennec (Ed.): Robert Grosvenor, Locmine, 1989
Others
Foster, Hal, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois, Benjamin H.D. Buchloh, and David Joselit (Ed.): Art Since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism, London,
2011
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Ed.): Whitney Biennial 2010, New Haven / London, 2010
Christian Rattemeyer (Ed.): The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection: Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 2009
The Museum of Modern Art: Against the Grain: Contemporary Art from the Edward R. Broida Collection, New York, 2006
Ann. A Goldstein (Ed.): Minimal Future? Art As Object 1958-1968, Los Angeles, 2004
7th Biennale d'Art Contemporain de Lyon - Avant, Les Presses du Réel / Fage Éditions, 2003
Josef Helfenstein, Jonathan Fineberg (Eds.): Drawings of Choice from a New York Collection, Champaign, 2002
Marzona Villa Manin (Ed.): A private collection, Ostfildern, 2001
The Museum of Contemporary Art: Afterimage. Drawing through Process, Cambridge, 1999
Karsten Schubert / Frith Street Gallery (Eds.): From Figure to Object: A Century of Sculptorsʼ Drawings, London, 1996
National Gallery of Art: From Minimal to Conceptual Art. Works from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection, Washington, D.C., 1994
Philippe Staib Gallery (Ed.): Then & Now, New York, 1992
Deutsch Foundation (Ed.): L'Aventure de l'Abstraction: 1960–1990, Belmost-Sur-Lausanne, 1990
Kenneth Baker (Ed.): Minimalism, New York, 1988
documenta 8, exhibition catalogue Kassel, 1987
The Musée dʼArt Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou (Ed.): L'Epoque, la mode, la morale, la passion: Aspects de l'art d'aujourd'hui, 1977–1987, Paris, 1987
John Berggruen Gallery (Ed.): Works from the Paula Cooper Gallery, San Francisco, 1986
Bard College Center / Sally Avery Center for the Arts, Edith C. Blum Art Institute (Eds.): The Maximal Implications of the Minimal Line, Milton / Annandale-on-Hudson, 1985
University of South Florida / SVC Fine Arts Gallery (Eds.): Objects, Structures, Artifice, American Sculpture: 1970–1983, 1984
William Paterson College (Ed.): Drawings from the Collection of Milton Brutten and Helen Herrick, Wayne, 1982
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (Ed.): postMINIMALism, Ridgefield, 1982
Amerikanische Zeichnungen der Siebziger Jahre, Munich, 1981
Madeleine Deschamps (Ed.): La Peinture Americaine, Paris, 1981
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (Ed.): The Minimal Tradition, Ridgefield, 1979
Minnesota Museum of Art (Ed.): American Drawing 1927–1977, St.Paul, 1977
Documenta 6, exhibition catalogue, Kassel, 1977
Whitney Museum of American Art (Ed.): 200 Years of American Sculpture, New York, 1976
University of Pennsylvania, Institute of Contemporary Art (Ed.): Painting, Drawing and Sculpture of the '60s and the '70s from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection, 1975
Musée dʼArt Moderne de la Ville de Paris: Tendences Actuelles de la Nouvelle Peinture Americaine, Paris, 1975
Städtisches Museum Leverkusen (Ed.): Zeichnungen 3, U.S.A., Leverkusen, 1975
Virgina Museum of Fine Arts (Ed.): Works on Paper, Richmond, 1974
The Contemporary Arts Museum (Ed.): 10, Houston, 1972
Centrum, Park Sonsbeek (Ed.): Sonsbeek 71 and Sonsbeek 71, Part 2, Arnheim, 1971
Whitney Museum of American Art (Ed.): Contemporary American Sculpture, Selection 2, New York, 1969
Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (Ed.): Minimal Art, Düsseldorf, 1969
Publications
Robert Grosvenor
Exhibition Poster
2022
€ 20.00
Robert Grosvenor
Galerie Max Hetzler Berlin | Paris | London / Karma, New York 2020
With texts by Rachel Kushner, Suzan Frecon and Bob Nickas
€ 40.00
Selected Press
The Brooklyn Rail March 2019
Art Forum Summer 2017
Mousse Magazine 2016
Berliner Zeitung November 2014
Notations: Contemporary Drawing as Idea and Process September 2012
Blouin Artinfo May 2011
Texte zur Kunst September 2005
