Nancy Grossman
1940–
As a teenager, Nancy Grossman assisted at her parents’ dress factory in Oneonta, New York, learning to sew and make patterns—skills she would employ in her most notable body of work, known as “Heads.” Grossman has worked in a range of two- and three-dimensional mediums but is most identified with these fastidiously crafted, life-sized, leather- covered sculptures of human heads, which she began making in 1968 and continued to produce until the mid-1990s. Each head begins as a block of wood that Grossman carves, sands, and polishes before tautly wrapping it with pieces of leather—sourced from items such as biker jackets and boxing gloves—that are then joined together with nails, stitches, and zippers. Additional adornments might include spikes, horns, and other protrusions; buckles, straps, and chains; noses fashioned from rubber or enamel; dentures; and eyes made of glass or buttons.
The eyes and mouth of Head 1968, like those in many of Grossman’s head sculptures, are obscured, suggesting a subject who is being silenced or restrained. As the artist wrote in 1969: “This work has to do with the taboos against . . . knowing what you know . . . and what you are not supposed to know even though you do know. . . . We are buckled and bound in our taboos.” Created within the context of the social and political upheavals of the late 1960s, including, as Grossman elaborated then, “the second-class citizenship of Blacks, police brutality, corruption in the military, and hunger in America,” Head 1968 today transcends a specific moment, instead symbolizing the individual’s encounter with, and refusal or inability to respond to, the injustices that surround us.
Introduction
Nancy Grossman (born April 28, 1940) is an American artist. Grossman is best known for her wood and leather sculptures of heads.
Wikidata identifier
Q6962720
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed April 28, 2025.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, assemblage artist, collagist, painter, sculptor, teacher
ULAN identifier
500067133
Names
Nancy Grossman
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 28, 2025.
