Michael Gross viewed his art as an individual response to life and incorporated many personal events into his paintings, sculptures, installations, drawings and prints. He was born in what was then Palestinian territory under the British mandate. He grew up on the shores of Lake Tiberias, on his parents’ farm. It was destroyed by Palestinians while he was in Jerusalem, attending a teacher training course (1936-40). His uncle and father were killed during the 1936-1939 Arab revolt, in 1938 and 1939 respectively. The tragic loss of his father is thought to lie at the root of Gross’ need for artistic expression. A prominent motif in many of his paintings, until well into the 1980s, is indeed the father figure.
Gross studied architecture at the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa (1943-45) and, at the same time, sculpture with Moshe Ziffer. A scholarship allowed him to attend the École National Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1951 to 1954. This brought him into contact with international developments in contemporary art. Gross learned from the oeuvres of Chaim Soutine, Henri Matisse and Alberto Giacometti. He also visited Constantin Brancusi in his studio. Gross’ work was well received in Paris. Returning to Israel, he settled in the artists’ village of Ein Hod near Haifa and taught sculpture at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem (1957-60) and at Oranim Art Institute (1960-86). Gross was forty when he attained international success. A lively debate still surrounds the local, international or universal significance of his work. Together with several other artists, he represented Israel at the Venice Biennale in 1960. He was awarded the gold medal for sculpture at the São Paulo Biennale in 1971. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired his work in 1965. The Guggenheim Museum, New York, followed suit in 1972. Yet the majority of Gross’ works are to be found in Israeli collections and sculpture parks. Gross is considered one of the most important Israeli artists of the second half of the 20th century. Younger Israeli artists, such as Belu-Simion Fainaru (b. 1959), recognise his influence on their development.
Gross made his debut in the 1940s with oil paintings and clay sculptures. Influenced in part by Brancusi, he also created sculptures in wood and stone in the 1950s. Gross evolved, in tandem, from impasto paintings and heavy sculpture to a pared down visual language in both disciplines. In his paintings, this manifested itself in austere colours and forms. Entire compositions were created from just a few areas of pastel in natural, organic tones. From the late 1960s, his sculpture evolved from space-filling volumes to works that stand in it, almost like line drawings. They recall the works of Giacometti and Barnett Newman. Gross did not adhere to the theory of minimalism. He did not see it as an end in itself, but as a means of reducing his sculptures to their absolute essence. Gross preferred to consider himself a constructivist, a term that can be understood as a style in which artists seek to convey the greatest possible message through a geometric complex of forms. He sought balance in form, material and colour, invariably assuming a personal connection with the figures or the experiential moment. Gross also appreciated Pop Art and would often integrate reclaimed wooden beams, doors and windows, amongst other things, into his paintings. People, nature and domesticity are the sources of other key motifs in Gross’ work, such as female nudes, tree trunks, tables and chairs. These take their place alongside the landscape. Windows and doors appear not only as structures in his paintings but also in his spatial installations. Gross’ work became sparser and sparser and became almost fully abstract in around 2000.
