Chaim Gross

Chaim Gross, who held Austrian citizenship, was born the son of a lumberjack in what is today Ukraine. The family fled from anti-Semitic programs and in 1921 emigrated to the United States. He continued his studies, which he started in Budapest and Wien (Vienna), initially as a goldsmith, in New York. Gross was a sculptor and graphic artist, and added lithography to his studio practice, creating luminous and profound renderings of historic and modern Judaic subjects. In 1927 he became a professor for sculpture and printing techniques and continued teaching up to an old age. For some time, Gross was president of the Sculptors Guild of America. After World War II, he traveled to Israel several times and designed a memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe for New York. In addition to bronze figures, he especially created numerous wooden figures. From the 1950s, he became more concerned with painting and graphics. His daughter Mimi Gross (né 1940) later became a well-known performance artist with huge 3-D constructions.

Gross repeatedly dealt with the topic of Acrobats, most of which he produced in later decades. In view of the year of origin (1932), the wooden sculpture Acrobatic Dancers, also called Acrobatic Performers is a likely candidate to be his entry. The 107 x 73 cm relief sculpture consists of maple wood and was later donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum.