What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part I

The human head, frequently masked, is a motif that has become synonymous with New York-based artist Nancy Grossman. Her treatment of the subject has been variously described as an expression of authority, the human condition, repression, self-imposed/societally-imposed restriction, oppression, and as self-portrait. The artist’s best known body of work–sculpted heads made of carved wood covered in sewn black leather masks with zippers, buckles, and bolts–has been widely exhibited and has helped vault her to stardom.

An important part of her œuvre also includes two-dimensional works of human heads, including drawings, collage paintings, and watercolors, such as Head of a Man: a faceless, silent, static head here presented as a head and shoulders portrait covered in a mask selectively covered by an irregular nework of tape lines that resemble sutures or veins. Similar mixed media works with collage on paper depicting faceless heads dotted by a network of thin, applied tape strips were also produced by the artist in 1976. Heads were a significant and persistent theme throughout Grossman’s career; for her, after all, “your head...is...your most powerful organ.”

While both males and females are subjects of Grossman’s work, males appear with greater frequency (particularly in her sculptural work), though are more often generically identified in the titles of her work as Figure or Head (or Heads in the case of multiple figures). While Grossman’s pioneering art has long been associated with Feminism, a work such as the present Head of a Man also speaks to broader themes concerning the human condition, as well as to personal experiences the artist endured as a child. While much has also been written regarding the suggestive sadomasochistic tendencies that appear inherent in many of Grossman’s masked heads, more broadly they reference a sort of blind, mute subservience as a response to societal turmoil and upheaval. It is also noteworthy that as a student at Pratt Institute in New York City, Grossman studied under Richard Lindner, and he would go on to serve as a mentor to Grossman. Elements of Lindner’s pictorial language may be seen in the present work.