Use of original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Washington, D.C. research facility. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Tibor de Nagy Gallery records, 1941-1993. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
Funding for the processing of this collection was provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Rosalyn Drexler, 2017 May 17-June 2. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview with Rosalyn Drexler conducted 2017 May 17 and June 2 by Christopher Lyon, for the Archives of American Art, at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York, New York.
Drexler discusses her childhood in the Bronx; her experiences studying dance and music; her higher education at Hunter College; attending films and the Yiddish Theater; meeting her husband Sherman Drexler; her time as a professional wrestler; her memories of traveling to the South and encountering Jim Crow segregation; she describes learning about art from Sherman Drexler and her joint exhibition with Sherman; her early work in sculpture; participating in Happenings with Jim Dine; joining Anita Reuben's gallery; her debut as a playwright; her experience writing "I am the Beautiful Stranger;" the changing public perception of her and being classified as an artist; her decision to become a painter and appropriating images for her work; the influence of S. J. Perelman on her plays; her play about Joseph Cornell and ballerina Allegra Kent, and interviewing Allegra Kent; her recent artwork and preparing for her 2017 show at Garth Greenan Gallery; her artwork from the 1980s and 1990s; her comedy writing and sense of humor. Drexler also recalls Chico Marx, Jack Newfield, Igor Youskevitch, Ivan Karp, Anita Reuben, Lucas Samaras, Richard Gilman, Al Carmines, Amiri Baraka, Barbara Ann Teer, Franz Kline, Elaine De Kooning, Bill de Kooning, Andy Warhol, Jack Kroll, Lawrence Alloway, Tom Hess, Barney Newman, Harold Rosenberg, Susan Sontag, Joe Hirshhorn, Henry Geldzahler, Donald Barthelme, Kornblee Gallery, Eva Hesse, Tom Doyle, William Klein, Marilyn Monroe, Alex Katz, Alice Neel, Basquiat, Saturday Night Live, and Lenny Bruce, among others.
Biographical / Historical:
Rosalyn Drexler (1926- ) is a sculptor, playwright, and novelist in New York, New York. Christopher Lyon (1949- ) is a writer in Brooklyn, New York.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Occupation:
Authors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Playwrights -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Photographs of people and places include portraits of Gross; photographs of Gross at home with his art collection, with family, in his studio, at the foundry, and at exhibition openings, parties, and gatherings in his home and elsewhere; and photographs of Gross with friends, artists, art collectors, and others. Portraits are by Linda Kleban-Kleineman, Marvin P. Lazarus, Arnold Newman, Carl van Vechten, Max Waldman, and others. Photos of Gross in his studio include at least two taken by Eliot Elisofon that were used in Gross's book The Technique of Wood Sculpture.
Photographs of the Gross family include Gross with his two brothers shortly after reuniting in the United States circa 1921; family portraits of Gross, Renee, and their children; a photograph of Mimi Gross with Red Grooms and their daughter Saskia taken by Arnold Newman; and two photographs of Arnold Newman with Mimi Gross and Red Grooms.
Photographs of Chaim Gross in the studio span entire his career from the 1930s to the 1980s and include images of Gross's Grand Street studio in Soho, purchased in 1963, and of his home and studio at 526 LaGuardia Place. There are photographs of Gross working on sculpture for the 1939 World's Fair, working on Six Days of Creation for Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City, circa 1966, and with his sculpture at the Bedi-Makky Art Foundry in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Photographs from the 1960s include some take by Dena (Dinah Rubenstein). One 1944 photograph includes an image of photographer Marion Palfi posing for another artist.
Photos of Gross with others include fellow Educational Alliance Art School students Peter Blume, Elias Grossman, Leon Jackson, Elias Newman, and Anna Ostrovski. Photos of parties include photos from Chaim and Renee Gross's fiftieth wedding anniversary picturing attendees including Sally Avery, Estelle Kerkauf, Jack Levine, Arnold Newman, Warren M. Robbins, and Raphael Soyer. Attendees pictured at other parties at Gross's home include Emil Arnold, Maurice Becker, Leonard Bocour, Frederico Castellon, Nicolai Cikovsky, Joseph Floch, Ruth Gikow, Marsha Hersey, Leon Kroll, Jack Levine, Irving Marantz, Morris Nechin, Raphael Soyer, Sylvia Small, Stuyvesant Van Veen, Hudson D. Walker, and Sol Wilson.
Photographs of art-related events include Gross participating in symposia, juries, art demonstrations, auctions, awards dinners, and other events and include John Hovaness; Adolph Gottlieb and Nelson Rockefeller at an Educational Alliance Art School celebration; Vincent Glinsky at a Sculptors Guild member benefit; and Golda Meir receiving the sculpture Mother Israel at a Bonds for Israel dinner in 1974.
Gross is also pictured with art collectors and gallery owners such as Bella and Sol Fishko, Sidney Janis, Gus Newman, Warren Robbins, and Helena Rubenstein; and other prominent people including Barbara Streisand and Abba Eban, an Israeli diplomat and politician and a scholar of the Arabic and Hebrew languages; and Leonard Harris interviewing Gross for a circa 1967 television program.
Photographs of Chaim Gross with artists include: Richard Avedon, Peter Blume, Hyman Brown (posing for Gross), Alexander Dobkin, Joseph Hirsch (possibly with Ernest Fine and Sol Wilson), Al Hirschfield, Karl Knaths (posing for Gross), Jack Levine, Louise Nevelson, Anthony Quinn, and Herman Rose. There is also a photograph of Gross with William Zorach, Helen Keller, and Anne Sullivan at a 1938 Sculptor's Guild outdoor exhibition in which Helen Keller is admiring one of Gross's sculptures. Photographs of Gross with Isaac, Moses, and Raphael Soyer include a portrait of Gross, Moses Soyer and L. Riebuck, 1924, by Richard Alan Fox; a photo of Gross with Arnold Newman and Raphael Soyer; and a photo of Joseph Stella posing for Moses Soyer.
Photographs of exhibition installations include Gross's first one-man show at Gallery 144 West 13th Street; a 1939 Sculptors Guild exhibition; a 1957 Duveen-Graham Gallery exhibition; a 1959-1960 solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art; and a 1967 exhibition at Forum Gallery.
People pictured at exhibition openings and receptions in this series include Silvia Carewe, Lily Harmon, Irving Marantz, and Sol Wilson at a Jewish Museum opening (1953); Anne Brigadier, Lena Gurr, Gerrit Hondious, Joseph Kaplan, Bernard Simon, and Sabina Teichman at a 1957 opening; Bill Barrett, Helen Beling, Jose de Creeft, Philip Evergood, Vincent Glinsky, Lorrie Goulet, Roy Gusson, Cleo Hartwig, Luise Kaish, Lily Landis, and Sidney Simon at two Sculptors Guild exhibitions at Lever House; Jose de Creeft, Joseph Hirshhorn, and Raphael Soyer at 1970-1976 openings; and Gross with Alice Neel and Raphael Soyer, circa 1980s. There are also photos of the opening for Gross's 1977 retrospective at the Jewish Museum picturing Gross with artists, collectors, and gallery owners.
Arrangement:
Photographs are arranged by subject and chronologically thereafter.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Collection Rights:
The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.
Collection Citation:
Chaim Gross papers, 1920-2004. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Sponsor:
The Chaim Gross papers were processed with funding from the Shirley Gorelick Foundation.
