Born: 1937
Died:
Gender: Male
Nationality: American
Grooms was born in Nashville, Tennessee and studied at the Peabody
College there. He moved on to the Art Institute of Chicago, the New
School for Social Research in New York and then a summer school in
Provincetown run by Hans Hofmann.
He initially came to prominence with his
Happenings in New York in the late Fifties. By the 1960s he was working
on mixed-media installations featuring garish figures taking over whole
rooms. In some ways like a comic strip come to life these events
established his reputation. He went on to create more ambitious projects
often drawing on a team of collaborators including his wife Mimi Gross.
Besides these 'environments', Grooms has produced many paintings
characterised by their vivid colours and distinctive figures, and has
worked with the filmmaker Rudolph Burckhardt on a number of occasions. |