Red Grooms Art
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 Carolinato
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Artist: Red Grooms
TONTO-CONDO (THREE DIMENSIONAL)
By Red Grooms
Located in Aventura, FL
Tonto-Condo, 1983, published by Shark's Ink, Lyons, Colorado (Knestrick, 96). Hand signed and numbered by the artist in pencil. Three-dimensional color lithographic construction with...
Category
1980s Pop Art Red Grooms Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Lithograph, Paper
Giacometti
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Red Grooms’ “Ruckus Manhattan” in the mid-1970s humorously transformed Grand Central Terminal into a 3-D caricature of New York City. “I wanted to do a novelistic portrait of Manhatt...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Etching
Butterfly Man
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Red Grooms’ “Ruckus Manhattan” in the mid-1970s humorously transformed Grand Central Terminal into a 3-D caricature of New York City. “I wanted to do a novelistic portrait of Manhatt...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Etching
Heavy Metal
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Red Grooms’ “Ruckus Manhattan” in the mid-1970s humorously transformed Grand Central Terminal into a 3-D caricature of New York City. “I wanted to do a novelistic portrait of Manhattan from Battery Park to Grant’s tomb,” Grooms explained. The comic-book inspired interactive installation included iconic landmarks—the subway, Central Park, the Apollo Theater...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Etching
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 Art
Materials
Lithograph
Matisse in the Souk II
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color monotype
Completed after a recent trip to Morocco, this print continues Grooms’ series of tributes to modern masters. Grooms imagined this scene as he followed the footsteps...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Monotype
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 Art
Materials
Lithograph
"Matisse Cut Outs V"
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color monotype with hand coloring and collage
Category
2010s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Monotype
Moonstruck
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Porcelain plate (Edition of 3000)
This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City.
Category
1990s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Porcelain
Matisse Cut Outs VI
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color monotype with hand coloring and collage
In 2015, Grooms completed a series of colorful monotype collages, a tribute to Henri Matisse. The Matisse Cut Outs...
Category
2010s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Monotype
Ruckus Tugboat
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color 3-D lithograph in Plexiglas box, Ed. 45.
Grooms, who has devoted much of his distinguished career to portraying his New York City home, turns his eye to New York’s harbor and its hardworking tugboats in this three-dimensional lithograph. This tug, the ”Lysiane”, steams through rolling waves…with smoke billowing from the smokestack. Sailing past a buoy with a seagull perched on top….the deck hand prepares to throw a lifesaver to a man overboard. Hidden in the waters are a green suited man with concrete...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Lithograph
Western Pals
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color lithograph, Edition 40.
Red Grooms is a painter, sculptor, printmaker, filmmaker, and showman par excellence. His major installations, “Ruckus Manhattan”, “The City of Chicago...
Category
1990s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Lithograph
Picasso
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color 3-D lithograph, Edition 75.
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 Art
Materials
Lithograph
Pollock's Model A
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color lithograph, Edition 75.
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 Art
Materials
Lithograph
Red Bud Diner
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color lithograph, Edition 75
Red Grooms and Master printer Bud Shark began their many print collaborations in 1981 with "Mountaintime", followed in 1982 by their first three-dimen...
Category
1990s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Lithograph
Elvis IV
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color monoprint
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 Noa...
Category
1980s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Monoprint
Jackson in Action
By Red Grooms
Located in Lyons, CO
Color 3-D lithograph in Plexiglas box, Edition 75
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...
Category
1990s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Lithograph
Aubrey Beardsley
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Red Grooms’ “Ruckus Manhattan” in the mid-1970s humorously transformed Grand Central Terminal into a 3-D caricature of New York City. “I wanted to do a novelistic portrait of Manhatt...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Monoprint
1976 POP-ART Acrylic Abstract Oil Painting Ruckus Manhattan 3D NYC Project
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Up for sale, a Red Grooms (B 1937) POP ART Original Acrylic Painting done for Ruckus Manhattan.
Again, the painting is an ABSTRACT ACRYLIC painting on board, Dated 1976
This Origin...
Category
1970s Pop Art Red Grooms Art
Materials
Oil, Acrylic
Untitled, from The International Anthology of Contemporary Engraving
By Red Grooms
Located in London, GB
Etching on BFK Rives paper, 1962, signed and numbered E.A. from the edition of 60, printed by Atelier Georges Leblanc, Paris, published by Galleria Schwarz, Milan, 25.2 x 19.2 cm. (9.9 x 7.6 in.)
From The International...
Category
1960s American Realist Red Grooms Art
Materials
Etching
Los Aficionados
By Red Grooms
Located in Miami, FL
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
Red Grooms
Los Aficionados
1990
3D Lithograph construction in original plexiglas box
23 h x 35 w x 14 d in.
Edition of 90
Pencil signed and numbered
Accompani...
Category
1990s Contemporary Red Grooms Art
Materials
Lithograph
Museum
By Red Grooms
Located in New York, NY
Museum, 1978
Signed and numbered
Lithograph
Sheet: 10 x 23 inches
Frame: 15.25 x 28.75 inches
Edition 38 of 150
Category
1970s Red Grooms Art
Materials
Lithograph
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.
Artists Similar to Red Grooms
Questions About 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.
- 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 ExpertNovember 13, 2024The info card next to a painting is called a museum or identification label. On most museum labels, you'll find the artist's name, the name of the piece, its year of production, a description of its materials and historical information about the work. Many museums sell catalogues that include images of the works on display along with the information included on the museum labels. Explore a diverse assortment of paintings on 1stDibs.