Michael Gross

Michael Gross 1920-2004 (Israeli) Figure, 1960s oil and glass fibres h:45 w:35 cm signed and dated on the reverse Provenance: Gildor-Gildengoren collection Exhibited: Collecting in the eyes of an artist, The Gildor-Gilengoren Collection, Holon Municipality, 2000 Estimate $10,000-12,000

Item No. 108 Artist's Name Michael Gross 1920 - 2004 Item Name Givat HaMoreh, 1950s Technique Oil on canvas Measurements 33X44 cm Signed Signed. Signed again, dated and titled on the reverse. Value $3000 - 4000 Sold for $3570

Measurements 70 7/8 by 35 3/8 in. alternate measurements 180 by 90 cm. DESCRIPTION signed in Hebrew (lower left) oil on canvas Painted in 1967 and in 1974. LITERATURE AND REFERENCES Mordechai Omer, Michael Gross, 1993, no. 106, p. 86, illustratedin color CATALOGUE NOTE Michael Gross is celebrated for the virtuosity with which hereduces human and landscape forms to their most spirituallyessential elements. He was born in Tiberias in 1920 and studied atthe École des Beaux Arts, Paris during the fifties. In 1960, Grossrepresented Israel at the Venice Biennale and continued to exhibitthroughout the world. During his time in Paris he was captivated bythe works of Soutine, Matisse, Brancusi and Giacometti. The senseof an oppressed individual in an open space and the noble strugglefor existence, themes at the heart of Giacometti's oeuvre werehugely influential in the way that Gross portrayed his figuresconfined and defined by the landscape of Israel. This is clearlyseen in the present work as Mordechai Omer describes: ' In hisearly landscape painting during the 60's...Gross was responding tothe drama of encounters between the 'great masses' in the mostexpressive manner. The traces of the encounter were marked with thedarkest brushstrokes on the background of surfaces suffused withlight, in colors of brown, ochre and lemon yellow...The fissuresthat wound the fields are analogous in certain senses to motifsthat recur in other paintings of those years, which the diminishingpresence of the human figure in the open space: in paintings suchas...Figure of a Woman (Blue on Ochre) (1967, 1974), thehuman figure is reduced and refined until it becomes a tremblingwire that streams upward in pain.' (Mordechai Omer, Michael Gross,Tel Aviv, 1993, p.36).

Michael Gross 1920 - 2004 Self-Portrait with Palette, 1947 Oil on wood 40.5X27.4 cm Signed, dated and titled on the reverse. $15000 - 20000 Mordechai Omer, Michael Gross, The University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University in Collaboration with Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1993, p. 34, no. 48, illustrated. Provenance The artist's Estate. "Gross painted his self portrait with Palette in very dark hues, over which he daubed patches of red and white with no tonal variegation. The sharp contrasts between the colors and the thick materiality of the layers of paint recall the works of Georges Rouault (1871-1958), an artist whose works evoked life moments that blend the pathetic with the solemn, and sensual physicality with spiritual exaltation. Beside his affinity to Rouault, Gross was at the time strongly influenced by Chaim Soutine."Mordechai Omer, Michael Gross, The University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University In Collaboration with Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 1993, p. 23.

Sinai I signed in Hebrew (lower left); signed and dated 'M. Gross 1980' (on the reverse) and signed again in Hebrew oil on canvas 51 x 45 5/8 in. (129.5 x 115.5 cm.) Executed in 1980 Provenance Israel Zafrir, Tel Aviv. Private collection, Herzliya. Literature M. Omer, Michael Gross , Tel Aviv, 1993, no. 122 (illustrated p. 99). Exhibited Tel Aviv, Museum of Art, Michael Gross, A Retrospective , 1993, no.74.