Beloosesky Gallery is interested in purchasing original paintings and sculpture by MIchael Gross.
Please call (917) 749-4557 or email us at info@beloosesky.com
Michael Gross (1920–2004), was an important Israeli painter and sculptor. Born in Tiberias, in the British-administered Palestine in 1920, to a sixth generation Galilean family, the son of Leah Levi and Chaim Gross, Michael Gross had a very lonely childhood, as his father, a romantic pioneer, chose to live with his family in an isolated area near the shore of the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). He grew up in the community of Migdal surrounded by Arab villages, the family was in a precarious situation and Gross did not go to school until he was ten. In the 1936 riots, the family's house was burned down and they moved back to Tiberias. Three years later, in 1939, when the family returned to the ruined house, his father was stabbed to death by Arabs. He served as a watchman in the Settlements Police during the British Mandate and took part in the War of Independence.
Michael Gross studied art in Jerusalem at the Mizrachi Teacher's Seminar, followed by architectural studies at the Technion in Haifa. In 1951–54, he studied in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts. When he returned to Israel he settled in Haifa and set up his studio at the artist's village of Ein Hod. He achieved acclaim in Israel and abroad, and also became a great teacher, beginning in the Bezalel Art Academy. Gross also taught art from 1960 to 1985 at the Oranim Kibbutz Teacher's Seminar. Generations of Israeli artists, including many of the most well known in Israel today, look to him as their mentor and source of inspiration.
His artwork represented Israel in international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennial, the Sao Paulo Biennial, and the Documenta 9 in Kassel, and was very favorably received.
Gross was considered a minimalist and was interested in the pure elements of plastic art and managed to express a complex array of emotions using shapes and colors. Michael Gross followed American abstract trends (especially Barnet Newman), but his quasi-abstract forms were always linked to reality, seeking only a subjective dialogue with their environment, as in his sculpture in the Simón Bolivar Park in Jerusalem. This unique interpretation of American Minimalism marks his works as a milestone in Israel art. In the 1980s figurative elements appeared in his work, creating a synthesis, again unique, between abstract and realist elements.
Gross' art was preoccupied with a limited number of subjects, including portraits, characters, landscapes and the home. He explored the contrasts between reality and dream, between man and the environment, between color and texture of various materials and between the figurative and the abstract.
Gross's works are imbued with the light and spirit. They are minimalist, but never pure abstraction, always tied to natural form and laden with feeling. In his early paintings, Gross simplified form in order to concentrate on proportion, broad areas of color, and the size and placement of each element. This reductive process was also notable in his sculptures, whether in painted iron or other materials such as white concrete. In later paintings, he often juxtaposed large off-white panels with patches of tone, adding textured materials such as wooden beams, burlap and rope. Michael Gross’s rough, freely-brushed surfaces, along with the use of soft pastel coloring, conjure up images of the Israeli landscape.
His work has shown in museums and collections worldwide, including the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He remains one of the most important and valued Israeli artists.
EDUCATION
1936-1940 Teachers Seminary, Jerusalem
1943-1945 Technion, Haifa, architecture, studied sculpture with Moshe Ziffer.
1951-1954 Beaux-Arts, Paris with Michel Gimond
TEACHING
1954 Higher School of Education, Haifa.
1957-1960 Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
1960-1980 Oranim Art Institute, Tivon
AWARDS
1964 Herman Struck Prize
1967 Dizengoff Prize
1971 Gold Medal, São Paulo Art Biennial
1977 Sandberg Prize for an Israeli Artist, Israel Museum
1987 Minister of Education and Culture Prize for Painting and Sculpture
1995 Gamzu Prize, Tel Aviv Museum
2000 Israel Prize for painting and sculpture.
OUTDOOR and PUBLIC ART
1974 Kiryat Hayovel (Simon Bolivar Park), Jerusalem
1980 Kibbutz Messilot
1982 To the victims of the sea, 1969, Tel Aviv University
1985 Tel Aviv University
1996 "Trio"- square of Tel Aviv Museum of Art