Chaim Gross

Chaim Gross was a modern sculptor recognized for his creations in wood, stone, and bronze.

Gross had a tumultuous youth with many relocations within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, places which are now located in Poland and Ukraine. He was born on March 17, 1902, in the village of Wolowa and because he came from a Jewish family, they fled and to settle in Kolomyia in 1911.

During World War I, the family fled Kolomyia but returned in 1915 after the Austrian troops came back. At the end of the war, Chaim and his brother Avrom-Leib went to Budapest, where he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of the painter Béla Uitz. However, the geopolitical climate compelled him to leave Hungary. After studying at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, he emigrated to the United States in 1921.

Upon arriving in New York, Gross continued his training at the Educational Alliance Art School and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, where he learned sculpture from Elie Nadelman. In 1926, he began exhibiting his works at the Jewish Art Center and the Salons of America. In 1932, he held his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144. That same year, he married Renee Nechin, with whom he had two children, Yehudah and Mimi, the latter also became a renowned artist.

During the 1930s, Gross became involved in government projects such as the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA), where he created sculptures for public buildings and events like the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

In the 1950s, he increasingly turned to bronze and went to Rome to refine his skills at prestigious foundries. His sculpture “The Family,” gifted to New York in 1991, became emblematic of his monumental style.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Gross received numerous honors, including honorary doctorates and an election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1974, he founded the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation in their Greenwich Village home, which is now a museum open to the public.

Chaim Gross passed away in May 1991 at Beth Israel Hospital in New York. His legacy endures through his works, which are displayed in major American museums.