Red Grooms
American, b. 1937
Charles Roger Grooms was born in 1937 in Nashville, Tennessee, a city that, with its lively honky-tonk scene and the theatricality of the historic Grand Ole Opry, would later influence much of his work. Nicknamed for his ginger hair, Red enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1955. A self-proclaimed “restless and undisciplined student,” Grooms spent the next few years moving between schools and cities, including the New School in New York, Peabody College (now part of Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, and Hans Hofmann’s summer school in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Frustrated with the academic track and anxious to enter the New York art scene, Grooms abandoned formal education to focus exclusively on creating art and securing exhibition opportunities in his Chelsea neighborhood. There, he found quick success and a supportive circle of artists that became close friends and collaborators.
From the start of his career, Grooms has worked in multiple media, from painting, printmaking, and sculpture, to installation art, filmmaking, and theatrical experiences known as “Happenings.” Much of his art blurs the boundaries between these different forms, such as his large-scale, carefully-crafted environments he calls “sculpto-pictoramas,” and smaller objects like Dalí Salad. In this example, Grooms combines silkscreened and lithographic elements with a wooden base and acrylic dome to create a three-dimensional portrait of the famous Surrealist artist.
Grooms is perhaps best known for his colorful and comedic commentary on the culture, politics, and figures associated with the American urban environment and art historical traditions. Relying on satire and caricature, Grooms’ art has paid homage to a wide range of artists including Rembrandt, Auguste Rodin, Thomas Eakins, and Benjamin West, as well as national icons like Thomas Jefferson and Chuck Berry. Grooms’ disparate output is so difficult to classify that he has been compared to the influential Dada artist, Marcel Duchamp. Like Duchamp, Grooms often deliberately confronts the art world establishment, noting in 1974 that “it’s good to have . . . something to go against.”
Despite his affinity for defying the mainstream, Grooms is routinely cited by scholars as one of the leading American artists of his generation and was honored with the National Academy of Design’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. The subject of a 1984 mid-career retrospective exhibition held at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the artist’s work can be found in public collections across the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, as well as in many international museums.
- The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina| Average Sold Price |
| $3,857 |
| Styles |
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| Related Artists |
Truck II (VEL 106; Knestrick 78), Red Grooms
By Red Grooms
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: Red Grooms (1937)
Title: Truck II (VEL 106; Knestrick 78)
Year: 1979-1980
Medium: Color lithograph, screenprint, rubber stamp impressions on Arches paper
Edition: 5/8 A.P., 7...
Category
1970s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Lithograph, Screen
$4,400 Sale Price
20% Off
H 25 in W 62.5 in
Sarajevo, Pop Art Permanent Marker on Paper Drawing by Red Grooms
By Red Grooms
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Red Grooms
Title: Sarajevo
Year: 1968
Medium: Marker Drawing on Paper, Signed and Dated l.l.
Paper Size: 13.5 x 19 inches (34.29 x 48.26 cm)
Frame: 17 x 22.5 inches (43.18 x ...
Category
1960s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Paper, Permanent Marker
$7,000
H 17 in W 22.5 in
Dixie's
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color lithograph, Edition 75.
Red Grooms is a painter, sculptor, printmaker, filmmaker, and showman par excellence. His major installations, “Ruckus Manhattan”, “The City of Chicago”, and “Tut’s Fever” have stretched the boundaries of sculpture and painting and excited the imaginations of thousands of viewers.
Red Grooms and Master printer Bud Shark began their many print collaborations in 1981 with “Mountaintime”, followed in 1982 by their first three-dimensional lithograph, “Ruckus Taxi”. The range of prints produced by Grooms and Shark include `flatsos’, flat-color lithographs, like “Elvis” and “Van Gogh with Sunflowers”, three-dimensional lithographs, “London Bus”, “Little Italy” and “Times Square”, three-dimensional lithographs with moving parts, “Red’s Roxy”, and “Holy Hula”, woodcuts, “Noa...
Category
1990s Contemporary Red Grooms
Materials
Lithograph
Samurai
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color lithograph, Edition 40.
Red Grooms and Master printer Bud Shark began their many print collaborations in 1981 with “Mountaintime”, followed in 1982 by their first three-dimensional lithograph, “Ruckus...
Category
1990s Contemporary Red Grooms
Materials
Lithograph
Red Grooms, "Expedition" (aka "EAT", aka "Stockholm Print") Signed/N, Framed
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Red Grooms
"Expedition" (aka "EAT", aka "Stockholm Print"), 1973
Silkscreen on 100% rag paper
Pencil signed, dated and numbered recto (front); Stamped in black on verso "© Copyright ...
Category
1970s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Screen
$1,000
H 15.25 in W 16.25 in D 0.4 in
Creative Time Inc. Red Grooms exhibition poster
By Red Grooms
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Original exhibition poster for Ruckus Manhattan by Red Grooms and the Ruckus Construction Company, 1975. Presented by Creative Time, Inc. Lithograph with offset lithographic photo elements, sheet measures 23 x 29 inches; 24 x 30 inches framed. Design by M. Samuels. Produced by Polychrome Lithography Co., Inc, NYC. Condition is outstanding with no damage or conservation. No creasing, staining, toning or fading.
A rare poster from an early show produced by Creative Time Inc. while only in their 2nd season. A lovely document of NYC art history.
Ruckus Manhattan was a multimedia, three-dimensional representation of Manhattan on display on the ground level of 88 Pine Street. The out-of-scale model, constructed of papier-mâché, wood, plastic, fiberglass, and vinyl, was designed to conform to Manhattan’s psychic dimensions, rather than its physical ones, and included such landmarks as the Apollo Theatre, the Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, the Chrysler Building, the Stock Exchange floor, Trinity Church, and the World Trade Center. Finding inspiration in sources as diverse as cubism and newspaper comics, Red and Mimi Gross Grooms...
Category
1970s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Printer's Ink, Offset
1988 'van Gogh with Sunflowers' HAND SIGNED Limited Edition
By Red Grooms
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This limited edition lithograph, titled Van Gogh with Sunflowers, was created by the celebrated American artist Red Grooms. The print is part of an exclusive edition of only 75, each...
Category
1980s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Lithograph
$3,750 Sale Price
50% Off
H 34 in W 22 in D 1.5 in
Guggenheim, Pop Art Lithograph Poster by Red Grooms
By Red Grooms
Located in Long Island City, NY
Red Grooms, American (1937 - ) - Guggenheim, Year: 1972, Medium: Lithograph Poster on Cartridge Paper (unsigned), Size: 39 in. x 26 in. (99.06 cm x 66.04 cm), Description: Depict...
Category
1970s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Lithograph
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Shop NowRed Grooms Sale Prices
This data represents a recent sample of sales made on 1stDibs during the specified years. All sales are anonymized.
| Sold Date | Sold Price | Category | Medium | Creation Year | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| $3,857 |
Average sold price of items in the past 12 months |
| $800-$9,600 |
| Sold price range of items in the past 12 months |
Artists Similar to Red Grooms
Red Grooms art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Red Grooms art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue, pink, red and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Red Grooms in lithograph, etching, monotype and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Red Grooms art, so small editions measuring 4 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Ed Ruscha, James Rosenquist, and Jim Dine. Red Grooms art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $200 and tops out at $25,000, while the average work can sell for $2,800.
Questions About Red Grooms
- 1stDibs ExpertJune 6, 2024Here are some interesting facts about Red Grooms: His given name is Charles Rogers Grooms, but he began going by his nickname after a gallery owner started calling him "Red" due to the vibrant color of his ginger hair. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee, but has lived in New York City for more than 40 years. While still a student, Grooms struggled to find an academic program that was the right fit and switched schools a few times, attending the New School in New York, Peabody College in Nashville and a summer school run by Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He is well known for his large “sculpto-pictogramas,” which combine elements of painting and sculpture. The National Academy of Design presented Grooms with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. On 1stDibs, shop a range of Red Grooms art.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Red Grooms, an American painter and sculptor, is best known for his life-size Pop art, which are known as “sculpto-pictoramas.” Ruckus Manhattan is the most famous of these, created by Grooms in 1975 with help from his assistants. It includes a model of the World Trade Center that’s 30 feet tall, a swaying Brooklyn Bridge, and a 15-foot-tall Statue of Liberty. On 1stDibs, shop a selection of Red Grooms artwork from top sellers worldwide.