Red Grooms could be described as Pop Art Maximalist, creating environments with bawdy and baroque visual actors that reflect the day’s news.* He is a visual raconteur, scouring the streets for unique or daily events. His eclectic influences range from: carnivals, vaudeville and roadside attractions of 1930s and 40s America; Walt Disney, America’s premier purveyor of Main Street kitsch; and theater producer and visual artist Robert Wilson, known for his visually complex meditations on time and human movement, among others. This mash-up evokes distinct reactions in the art world, which often demands serious work. Just as comedies never win best picture Oscar, works with a sly sense of humor and trenchant sense of human fallibility are perceived as being kitsch, or too populist. Yet Grooms’ work is enormously popular and accessible; he is an “everyman’s” artist, one who chronicles the ups and downs of life.
Grooms was part of New York’s 1960s avante garde. His early Happenings were inspired by his high school football career, and with fellow artists like Claes Oldenburg, Grooms helped launch performance as a legitimate art form. Grooms founded a short-lived gallery in order to support his fellow artists, showing Oldenburg and Alex Katz in his first New York exhibition. Grooms ranged widely to create dynamic connections between his world and the larger world around him.
Red Grooms could be described as Pop Art Maximalist, creating environments with bawdy and baroque visual actors that reflect the day’s news.* He is a visual raconteur, scouring the streets for unique or daily events. His eclectic influences range from: carnivals, vaudeville and roadside attractions of 1930s and 40s America; Walt Disney, America’s premier purveyor of Main Street kitsch; and theater producer and visual artist Robert Wilson, known for his visually complex meditations on time and human movement, among others. This mash-up evokes distinct reactions in the art world, which often demands serious work. Just as comedies never win best picture Oscar, works with a sly sense of humor and trenchant sense of human fallibility are perceived as being kitsch, or too populist. Yet Grooms’ work is enormously popular and accessible; he is an “everyman’s” artist, one who chronicles the ups and downs of life.
Grooms was part of New York’s 1960s avante garde. His early Happenings were inspired by his high school football career, and with fellow artists like Claes Oldenburg, Grooms helped launch performance as a legitimate art form. Grooms founded a short-lived gallery in order to support his fellow artists, showing Oldenburg and Alex Katz in his first New York exhibition. Grooms ranged widely to create dynamic connections between his world and the larger world around him.
Red Grooms could be described as Pop Art Maximalist, creating environments with bawdy and baroque visual actors that reflect the day’s news.* He is a visual raconteur, scouring the streets for unique or daily events. His eclectic influences range from: carnivals, vaudeville and roadside attractions of 1930s and 40s America; Walt Disney, America’s premier purveyor of Main Street kitsch; and theater producer and visual artist Robert Wilson, known for his visually complex meditations on time and human movement, among others. This mash-up evokes distinct reactions in the art world, which often demands serious work. Just as comedies never win best picture Oscar, works with a sly sense of humor and trenchant sense of human fallibility are perceived as being kitsch, or too populist. Yet Grooms’ work is enormously popular and accessible; he is an “everyman’s” artist, one who chronicles the ups and downs of life.
Grooms was part of New York’s 1960s avante garde. His early Happenings were inspired by his high school football career, and with fellow artists like Claes Oldenburg, Grooms helped launch performance as a legitimate art form. Grooms founded a short-lived gallery in order to support his fellow artists, showing Oldenburg and Alex Katz in his first New York exhibition. Grooms ranged widely to create dynamic connections between his world and the larger world around him.
