Michael Klein: "Robert Grosvenor: Renowned for his exploration of the structure and form"

Renowned for his exploration of the structure and form of sculpture, from cantilever abstracted forms of the 60s, to carved shapes of the 70s and the architectural fragments of the 90s, Grosvenor is endlessly finding new avenues to explore. The exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery, after dozens of his solo shows in New York, brings us a whole new side to the sculptor’s point of view. As if now reliving his youth and his admiration for speed and cars, we find the gallery transformed into a showroom for beautifully shaped and elegantly formed automobiles.

Like all of Grosvenor’s works, he questions and explores the depth of what sculpture might be. For Grosvenor and his generation, art is a question: defined by the individual vision of each artist, not the result of a dominant style or shared process. It’s a conceptual viewpoint found in new and adaptive materials. The quest for sculpture is the main question posed; the other question raised regards what contemporary actually means? Is it the time of the work or the style of the work? Ironically, we are introduced to very new work here, but when viewed, the shift is to the past.

Others have explored the ordinary as sculpture. John Armleder and Stefan Wewerka used domestic furniture; Panamarenko built idiosyncratic flying machines; Jene Highstein created free-standing rooms. All tested and expanded the very definition of sculpture beyond the traditions of assemblage and/or carving. The sources here are inspired neither by Picasso or Brancusi but the world at large. The fabric of the everyday, the materials we live with, so the vocabulary is very much our own.

As if viewing a chronology of styles, we see three distinct models on display: an open race car of the 20s, a low rider of the 50s or 60s pale green with rubber wheels, and the elegant shell of a sedan of the 30s finished in a deep dark purple. Each shape represents a distinct era as if the cars themselves were chapters in the artist’s life, a history of what he has both seen and experienced and how it influenced his thinking. The individual shapes of each car are modernized, if you will, so that details are minimized or even eliminated, and all that remains is the physical form of the car painted in a monochromatic tone.

As a whole, they represent the excitement and delight of youth: coming of age to drive, coming of age to own a car, and most importantly, coming of age to travel and thereby discover. At the same time, each is a unique image of the perfect car, the shape, scale, and design that is complete. Each is its own symbol of what is utterly modern and the dream of many, many Americans. To drive, as we are taught, is to live. So Grosvenor has given us statues of life, no longer warriors or Kings but the car. 

A separate smaller gallery space: a speedboat, endless yet the perfect shape of speed and, of course, modernity. It’s the symbol of escape, of leisure, of life away from work and responsibility. Like the cars, it is a memory made real, in three dimensions and seductive in its simple shape and aerodynamic form. And like the entire show, it is a memory many share.