ROBERT GROSVENOR


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

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

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, 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 Auctio
n
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 Sho
w
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 II
I
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

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Art Forum Summer 2017

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Mousse Magazine 2016

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Berliner Zeitung November 2014

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Notations: Contemporary Drawing as Idea and Process September 2012

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Blouin Artinfo May 2011

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Texte zur Kunst September 2005

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