Peter Grippe (August 11, 1912 – October 18, 2002) was an American sculptor, printmaker, and painter. As a sculptor, he worked in bronze, terracotta, wire, plaster, and found objects. His "Monument to Hiroshima" series (1963) used found objects cast in bronze sculptures to evoke the chaotic humanity of the Japanese city after its incineration by atomic bomb. Other Grippe

Surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

sculptural works address less warlike themes, including that of city life. However, his expertise extended beyond sculpture to ink drawings, watercolor painting, and printmaking ( intaglio). He joined and later directed

Atelier 17 Atelier 17 was an art school and studio that was influential in the teaching and promotion of printmaking in the 20th century. Originally located in Paris, the studio relocated to New York City during the years surrounding World War II. It moved ...

, the intaglio studio founded in London and moved to New York at the beginning of World War II by its founder,

Stanley William Hayter Stanley William Hayter (27 December 1901 – 4 May 1988) was an English painter and master printmaker associated in the 1930s with surrealism and from 1940 onward with abstract expressionism. Regarded as one of the most significant printmakers ...

. Today, Grippe's ''21 Etchings and Poems'', a part of the permanent collection at the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, is available as part of the museum's virtual collection.

Biography

Grippe, a member of the

American Abstract Artists American Abstract Artists (AAA) was founded in 1937 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major f ...

group, was born on August 11, 1912, in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, and died on October 18, 2002, in Suffolk, New York. While primarily known as a sculptor working in bronze and clay, he created a portfolio of etchings by 21 artists (examples include

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...

Jacques Lipchitz Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Lithuanian-born French-American Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, domi ...

, and Peter Grippe himself) and 21 poets (including

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

, and

Thomas Merton Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, Christian mysticism, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. He was a monk in the Trapp ...

) in a work entitled ''21 Etchings and Poems''. The collective work took three years to print and was published by New York's Morris Gallery in 1960. Grippe was educated at the Albright-Knox Art School (today the

Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Buffalo most commonly refers to: * True buffalo or Bubalina, a subtribe of wild cattle, including most "Old World" buffalo, such as water buffalo * Bison, a genus of wild cattle, including the American buffalo * Buffalo, New York, a city in the n ...

) and the

Art Institute of Buffalo The Art Institute of Buffalo was an art school in Buffalo, New York. It opened its doors in 1931, and continued to produce graduates until the institute closed in 1956. The faculty included a number of well-known artists. Many students of the in ...

. He moved to New York in the 1930s, and his work reflects a move into the Cubist and Surrealist schools. According to Bob Mattison, Marshall R. Metzgar Professor of Art History at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, “Moving away from simply realist depictions in public monuments, Grippe and his colleagues embraced Cubism with its openwork multidimensional view of the world and Surrealist imagery drawn from the subconscious thus bringing American sculpture into the modern era.” As Grippe's artistic and academic career progressed, he taught at several higher education institutions, including

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

, where he was named the first professor of sculpture. He was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in the category of fine arts in 1964. A transcribed interview with Grippe is available at the Smithsonian Institution's Archives of American Art. The interviewer, Dorothy Seckler, spoke with him in 1968. Grippe is also mentioned in a transcribed Smithsonian Institution interview in 2002 with

Ruth Asawa Ruth Aiko Asawa (January 24, 1926 – August 5, 2013) was an American modernist artist known primarily for her abstract looped-wire sculptures inspired by natural and organic forms. In addition to her three-dimensional work, Asawa created an ext ...

in her San Francisco in which she discusses his technique and their associates during the period from 1946 to 1949. Seven years after Grippe's death, his widow, Florence, made a gift of his work, his personal collection of art, and his personal papers to the

Allentown Art Museum The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is an art museum located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1934 by a group organized by Walter Emerson Baum, a Pennsylvania impressionist painter. The museum maintains a collection of ov ...

of the Lehigh Valley (Pennsylvania). He had a gallery exhibition in the Susan Teller Gallery of New York in November 2010.

Exhibitions and awards

Peter Grippe’s career was marked by many exhibitions, awards, and other honors, noted in the following partial list listed chronologically with information from exhibition catalogues, primarily a retrospective catalogue published by the Sid Deutsch Gallery for a one-man exhibition in 1991. The catalogues are available to view at Brooklyn Museum of Art Library, Brooklyn, N.Y. * Orrefors Gallery, New York, N.Y. 1942 (sole exhibition). *

Willard Gallery The Willard Gallery was a contemporary art gallery operating in New York City from 1940 until 1987. It was founded by Marian Willard Johnson. History In 1936, Marian Guthrie Willard had founded the East River Gallery as an art rental gallery at ...

, New York, 1944, 1945, 1948 (multiple sole exhibitions). *

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

, New York, N.Y., 1945 (group exhibition, “Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Sculpture, Drawings & Watercolours”). * Clay Club, New York, N.Y., 1946 (group exhibition, “Abstract & Non-Objective Sculpture”). * Willard Gallery, New York, N.Y. “Peter Grippe Watercolors and Sculpture,” October 8 to November 2, 1946 (sole exhibition). *

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1947 (prize, “Purchase Prize - First Annual Print Exhibition of Brooklyn Museum”) *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York, N.Y., 1951 (group exhibition, “Abstract Painting & Sculpture in America”). *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, New York, N.Y., 1952 (award, “Contemporary Watercolors, Drawings & Prints Award”, $500 print prize). *

Print Club A photo booth is a vending machine or modern kiosk that contains an automated, usually coin-operated, camera and film processor. Today, the vast majority of photo booths are digital. History The patent for the first automated photography m ...

, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1953 (award, “Charles M. Lea Award”) * Arts Commission of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, 1955 (award, “Boston Arts Festival Award”, $200 first prize for sculpture). * National Council for U.S. Art, 1955 (award, $1000 sculpture award). *

, Waltham, Massachusetts, 1957 (designed medallion for Creative Arts Award given by Brandeis University). * Slosberg Gallery, Brandeis University. Waltham, Massachusetts (in co-operation with the Peridot Gallery, New York City). “Sculpture Drawings Prints by Peter Grippe,” Monday, February 10, 1958 (sole exhibition opening). * Peridot Gallery. “Peter Grippe.” April 14 to May 11, 1959 (sole exhibition). * Nordness Gallery, New York, 1960 (sole exhibition). * Nordness Gallery, New York. May 21 to June 8, 1963 (sole exhibition). *

for Sculpture, New York, N.Y. (award, “Guggenheim Fellowship for Sculpture). * American Academy, Rome, Italy, 1965 (group exhibition). *

Sculptors Guild Sculptors Guild, a society of sculptors who banded together to promote public interest in contemporary sculpture, was founded in 1937. Signatories to the original corporation papers (Sculptors Guild, Inc.) were Sonia Gordon Brown, Berta Margouli ...

, New York, N.Y., 1967 (group exhibition). * Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y., 1969 (group exhibition, “The New American Painting & Sculpture: The First Generation”). * Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Massachusetts, 1969 (group exhibition, “Boston Now”). *

Boston Athenaeum Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of and a ...

, Boston, Massachusetts, 1979 (group exhibition, “American Contemporary Sculpture”). * Whitney Museum of American Art, 1980 (group exhibition, “The Figurative Tradition”). * Parrish Museum, Southampton, N.Y., 1985, (group exhibition, “Painting & Sculpture in New York, 1936-1946”). * Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York, N.Y.. “Peter Grippe - Selections from the 30s and 40s: Sculpture, Paintings & Drawings.” October 5–30, 1991 (sole exhibition). *

, “Peter Grippe ..” tart dateto lose date 2010 (sole exhibition; also includes “21 Etchings and Poems” portfolio). Posthumous retrospective exhibition after Florence Grippe’s gift of the artist’s personal collection and papers to the Allentown Art Museum in 2009.

Public commissions

* Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. Theodore Shapiro Forum, sculpture, 1963. * Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. Portrait of composer Irving Fine, 1964. *

Simmons College Institutions of learning called Simmons College or Simmons University include: * Simmons University Simmons University (previously Simmons College) is a private university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1899 by ...

, Boston. Sculpture for Science Building lobby, 1969. * Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. Portrait of Marver H. Bernstein, university president, 1980.

Locations of permanent collections

Addison Gallery of American Art Addison may refer to: Places Canada * Addison, Ontario, a community United States * Addison, Alabama, a town * Addison, Illinois, a village * Addison, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Addison, Maine, a town * Addison, Michigan, a vil ...

, Andover, Massachusetts *

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...

, Buffalo, N.Y. * Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley, Allentown, Pennsylvania * Blanden Memorial Gallery, Fort Dodge, Iowa * Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts * Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, N.Y. *

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

, Washington, D.C. *

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, Washington, D.C. * Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. *

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

(Rosenwald Collection), Washington, D.C. *

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

(print collection), New York, N.Y. *

Newark Museum The Newark Museum of Art, formerly known as the Newark Museum, in Newark, New Jersey is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia (including a large collection of T ...

, Newark, N.J. *

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

References

External links

Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley, Allentown, Pennsylvania
(accessed January 10, 2011)
Description of exhibition, "Peter Grippe: A Personal Vocabulary", Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley, July 18-November 14, 2010
(accessed January 7, 2011)
Lafayette College Art Department homepage
(accessed January 7, 2011)
Description of lecture, "Peter Grippe, 21 Etchings and Poems", by Margo Thompson, Ph.D., assistant professor of art history at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania
(accessed January 7, 2011
Flickr collection of a selection of Peter Grippe's work
(accessed January 7, 2011)

accessed January 7, 2011) * ttp://www.americanabstractartists.org American Abstract Artists group, founded in 1936 in New York City
FamilySearch.org
s Social Security Death Index record for Peter Grippe] (accessed January 7, 2011)
Multimedia presentation of ''21 Etchings and Poems'', Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Cambridge, Massachusetts
(accessed January 7, 2011)
"Allentown Museum Gets Grippe Collection" (Arts Blog)
''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', September 1, 2009 (accessed January 10, 2011) {{DEFAULTSORT:Grippe, Peter American women painters American women printmakers American women sculptors American abstract artists 1912 births 2002 deaths Atelier 17 alumni