Art Is Fleeting, but Red Grooms Is Forever

I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon wandering through Ruckus Manhattan with a member of the Construction Company and over 40 years later I still think of that eye opening experience often. As an architectural student and neophyte artist myself, it was heaven. Just mentioning his name still brings a smile to my face. And I'm a Homer fan, of course.

I've been a Grooms fan since I first saw parts of his sculpto-pictoramas at some exhibition or other. I once dated an art teacher from New York whom I met through a personal ad. She showed me some of her paintings. I said they reminded me of Red Grooms. As I recall, we had one subsequent date.

The Times story says: In 1967, Mr. Grooms and his then-wife Mimi Gross created the first of two key sculpto-pictoramas, “The City of Chicago,” ….. Mr. Grooms and Ms. Gross ramped up their ambitions with their signature work, “Ruckus Manhattan,” which had its debut in 1975. Then The Times says: The work ["Ruckus Manhattan”] launched Mr. Grooms to stardom. If "Ruckus Manhattan” was the work of Grooms and Gross why didn’t it launch both of them to “to stardom” ??? Could it be because she's a woman and he's a man?

Sadly, I'm in Italy and missed the opening of this show... hoping it's still up upon my return... as a collector of Red's prints I love nothing more than going through shows and catalogs saying, "got it, got it, want it. Got it, got, it, want it!"

I still remember with great delight the subway car on springs in New York. I giggle even now. Thanks Red.

In the late 80's my high school in Southern California, Fairfax High, did a Red Grooms inspired work. It was a collaboration of the art students at school. In it the streets of Paris were juxtaposed against the streets of Los Angeles. We did the installation at the Barnsdall Art Center. The culmination of this week long project was Red Grooms himself coming and engaging in the finale of our project. He was both larger than life & down to earth. One of the true highlights of my high school years I feel lucky to have engaged in such a project

One of the best shows I've seen Red Grooms and Jonathan Borofsky MOCA LA at the Temp Contemp. 1980 something Jumped right out at you !!!!!

I want to join the paean queue for this great and wonderful artist and hold up for a brief moment of celebration my particular favorites: the large works on paper from 1986 depicting the artists of the New York School in the 1950s. But that can only lead to praise for the whole of of his more general art-about-artists category and thence . . . why stop praising? . . . 'til you reach the edge of the known Grooms universe where Red is sharing a park bench with Max.

First time I was in Paris in about 2000, I was bummed to learn that I couldn't/shouldn't walk around on the street with a coffee to go, like a lot of New Yorkers do. Lo and behold, I turn a corner, and a small gallery is having a Grooms show, and in the front window is a work depicting a to go coffee cup with the Greek motif that was so popular in Manhattan at the time, and a bagel. Thanks Red, for the laugh.

I was just up at the Hudson museum in Yonkers and imagine my surprise after walking through the millionaires house attached to museum, I came across Red Groom's walk through piece of the bookstore vs library. What a fabulous piece! and what a fabulous surprise. Parents take your kiss to see Red Groom's work, it will change the way they look and think about art--in the best possible way!

I fell in love with Red Grooms work when “The City of Chicago” installation was in the Chicago Culture Center. I’d go on my lunch hour every day to walk through it and dragged friends to it. I WANTED it. Later, there was an art gallery exhibition on Navy Pier that had a small work, “Movie Theatre”?, It had a movie on a scroll that moved and sound, as I recall. I wanted that too but even that was out of my budget. I’ve had to resign to having a book, Red Grooms: A Retrospective, 1956-1984, it a small solace.

Go see Grooms's "Tut's Fever Movie Palace" at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria

I'm not that familiar with the oeuvre of Red Grooms, but while reading this article, when I scrolled down to the photo of Ruckus Manhattan, I unintentionally blurted out loud "That's wonderful!" Thank you, Mr. Grooms.

Red Grooms and Mimi Gross came to Syracuse University during the 1977-78 school year and presented a film of "Ruckus Manhattan" to our art history class. It was so different and fun--unforgettable. Then, in the early 2000's Red Grooms had a solo show of prints and 3-D works at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA. I took my husband to that show. I never saw him enjoy an exhibit quite like he did that one. He laughed so hard over "No Deductible", a piece about Tarzan's life insurance policy being canceled because of his high-risk lifestyle. Red Grooms is cool.

I'll be fifty next year and still vividly remember a show of his in some rooftop gallery in the 70's that our mom took us to. She had been taking us to museums probably the entirety of our short lives, and many of our parents' friends were artists, but walking through his iconic subway forever instilled in me a sense of the immediacy, relevance and excitement of art. These days we need it more than ever.

I remember a show by Grooms in Chicago in the late sixties, a big series of complex pieces put together by a number of artists, some of whom I knew, under the direction of Grooms. As best as I can remember the show was at the Frumkin gallery. At any rate there was a big party after the show at a poster company space on the south side where Muddy Waters performed. When I met Grooms he was friendly and gracious, a nice guy in the best sense and lacking pretense.

When I lived in DC, Red Grooms's work was the high light of my visits to the Hirschhorn.

This article brings me back to the Red Grooms exhibit I saw at the Whitney as a kid in the 80’s. I remember being blown away... and thinking, now this is art I can get behind! It was just so colorful, fun, relatable, clever. I am excited to now bring my kids to his exhibit in Chelsea. Full circle. I am excited to see their reactions.