SIDNEY GROSS American, 1921-1969 ICARUS, 1960 Oil on canvas. Oil on canvas. Dynamic vertical composition which is an example of Abstract Expressionism, characterized by its high-energy interplay of color and texture. Signed and dated lower left. Framed. 67 x 35.5 inches; frame: 68 x 36.5 inches $2,000-3,000
ARTIST PROFILE: Sidney Gross (9 February 1921 – 17 November 1969) was a prolific American modernist painter whose work spanned the transition from social realism to Abstract Expressionism. Born in New York City, he studied at the Art Students League on a scholarship and later became an influential teacher there, as well as at Columbia University and the University of Maryland. His early career was marked by "urban surrealism" and critically admired portraits, but by the late 1940s, he began experimenting with "amorphorism"—soft, diffused abstractions. His mature style evolved into large-scale, dynamic Abstract Expressionist works and eventually the "UFO and Probe" series of the 1960s, which combined controlled abstractions with hard-edge geometric fields. Despite his premature death at age 48, Gross achieved significant acclaim during his lifetime, with his work being featured in the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
