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(Biography provided by Helicline Fine Art)
| Average Sold Price |
| $4,983 |
| Styles |
| Materials |
| Related Artists |
Red Grooms Moonstruck Porcelain Sculpture Plate 3D Manhattan NYC Cartoon
By Red Grooms
Located in Surfside, FL
Moonstruck 1994
3D porcelain ceramic plate. limited edition.
Red Grooms (born Charles Rogers Grooms on June 7, 1937) is an American multimedia artist best known for his colorful po...
Category
1990s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Porcelain, Screen
H 10.5 in W 10.5 in D 2 in
Blewy II, Pop Art NYC Print by Red Grooms
By Red Grooms
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Red Grooms, American (1937 - )
Title: Blewy II
Year: 1972
Medium: Screenprint, unsigned
Edition: 3000
Paper Size: 14 x 18 inches (35 x 45 cm)
Frame Size: 19 x 25 inches
Pri...
Category
1970s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Screen
“De Kooning”
By Red Grooms
Located in Warren, NJ
Red Grooms “De Kooning Breaks Through” signed and numbered . In good condition measures 47x33
Category
20th Century Red Grooms
Materials
Lithograph
Bicentennial Bandwagon, Pop Art Lithograph by Red Grooms
By Red Grooms
Located in Long Island City, NY
Bicentennial Bandwagon by Red Grooms, American (1937)
Date: 1975
Offset Lithograph (unsigned as issued)
Image Size: 10 x 13 inches
Size: 14 in. x 17 in. (35.56 cm x 43.18 cm)
Frame S...
Category
1970s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Offset
Extra Extra Read All About It, New York City Newsstand, 3D Construction, Signed
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Red Grooms
New York City Newsstand, "Extra, Extra Read All About It", 2003
Mixed Media 3-D Construction in Custom Fitted Lucite Box
20 × 26 1/2 × 10 1/2 inches
Frame included
Edition...
Category
Early 2000s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Lucite, Paper, Mixed Media, Screen
H 20 in W 26.5 in D 10.5 in
Ruckus Manhattan, Historic offset lithograph poster, hand signed by Red Grooms
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Red Grooms
Ruckus Manhattan (Hand signed), 1981
Historic Offset lithograph poster (hand signed by Red Grooms)
11 × 28 inches
Hand signed by Red Grooms on the front
Unframed
The artis...
Category
1980s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Lithograph, Offset, Permanent Marker
Red Grooms Canal St Chinatown Manhattan New York City Lithograph Cartoon Pop Art
By Red Grooms
Located in Surfside, FL
Red Grooms (American, b. 1937).
Lithograph in colors on wove paper, 1993
"East of Canal Street, Corner of Canal."
Published by the Brooklyn Museum
(Reference: Red Grooms: The Graphic Work, Walter G. Knestrick. Harry Abrams Inc Publishers, New York, 2001. Cat. no 138 page 172,
Alexander & Cowles 138).
Downtown Manhattan, New York City Chinatown Street scene with various vendors.
Hand signed in black crayon and numbered on image at bottom edge.
"8/115 Red Grooms."
Dimensions 22" x 30"
Printer: Sharks Lithographs Ltd, Boulder, CO
Red Grooms (born Charles Rogers Grooms on June 7, 1937) is an American multimedia artist best known for his colorful pop-art constructions depicting frenetic scenes of modern urban life. Grooms was given the nickname "Red" by Dominic Falcone (of Provincetown's Sun Gallery) when he was starting out as a dishwasher at a restaurant in Provincetown and was studying with Hans Hofmann.
Grooms was born in Nashville, Tennessee during the middle of the Great Depression. Red Grooms came of age in the shadow of the Abstract Expressionists. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, then at Nashville's Peabody College. In 1956, Grooms moved to New York City, to enroll at the New School for Social Research. A year later, Grooms attended a summer session at the Hans Hofmann School of Fine Arts in Provincetown, Massachusetts. There he met experimental animation pioneer Yvonne Andersen, with whom he collaborated on several short films. Grooms follows in the tradition of William Hogarth and Honoré Daumier, who were canny commentators on the human condition. In 1969, Peter Schjeldahl compared Grooms to Marcel Duchamp, because both embodied "a movement of one man that is open to everybody."
In the spring of 1958, Grooms, Yvonne Andersen and Lester Johnson each painted twelve-foot by twelve-foot panels, which they erected with telephone poles on a parking lot adjacent an amusement park in Salisbury, MA. Inspired by artist-run spaces such as New York's Hansa Gallery and Phoenix, and Provincetown's Sun Gallery, Grooms and painter Jay Milder opened the City Gallery in Grooms' second-floor loft in the Flatiron District. When Phoenix refused to show Claes Oldenburg, Grooms and Milder dropped out of Phoenix and City Gallery presented Oldenberg's first New York exhibition, as well as that of Jim Dine. Other artists who showed at City Gallery include Stephen Durkee, Mimi Gross (daughter of Chaim Gross and Red Grooms wife), Bob Thompson, Lester Johnson, and Alex Katz. Grooms never developed the detached stance of such Pop Art practitioners as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein or James Rosenquist. Instead he painted his own life, and became, literally, an actor on the stage of life -- in this case the art-as-life "happenings" of the downtown New York scene. Inspired by George Méliès's 1902 film A Trip to the Moon...
Category
1990s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Lithograph
London Bus, 3-D Lithograph Sculpture by Red Grooms
By Red Grooms
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Red Grooms, American (1937 - )
Title: London Bus
Year: 1983 - 1984
Medium: 3-D Lithograph Construction on BFK Rives in a Plexi-Box, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 5/6...
Category
1980s Pop Art Red Grooms
Materials
Lithograph
Browse all Art from Red Grooms
Shop Now
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.