Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation
New York · USA
The Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation preserves the Greenwich Village townhouse studio of the sculptor Chaim Gross, who was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1904 and became one of the leading figures of twentieth-century American sculpture. The five-storey building at 526 LaGuardia Place was Gross's home and working studio for decades, and it retains the personal collection of art, artefacts, and objects he assembled over a lifetime.
The studio is particularly notable for the remarkable density of the collection: works by contemporaries — de Kooning, Miró, Lichtenstein, and many others — share space with pre-Columbian artefacts, African sculpture, and Gross's own work. The influence of a polymath collector with wide-ranging enthusiasms is evident in every room of the house.
Visiting the Gross Foundation is an unusually intimate experience. The scale is domestic and the collection feels personally assembled rather than institutionally curated. Allow an hour and a half to explore the house and studio properly.
Reviews
A hidden treasure in the Village. The density of the collection — Gross's own sculpture alongside de Kooning, Miró, and pre-Columbian artefacts — is extraordinary. Very personal and moving.
One of New York's best-kept secrets. The house is packed with remarkable objects and the personal scale of it — this was where the artist lived and worked — is genuinely affecting.
Fascinating and unusual. The mix of Gross's own sculpture, contemporary art, and world art objects reflects a wonderfully idiosyncratic collecting eye. Well worth a morning in Greenwich Village.
A hidden treasure in the Village. The density of the collection — Gross's own sculpture alongside de Kooning, Miró, and pre-Columbian artefacts — is extraordinary. Very personal and moving.
