Occasionally Grooms has fixed his sights on art-world personalities, sports figures and even the eastern Tennessee hills where he has a country house. His New York subject matter, however, has brought him the widest critical and popular acclaim, beginning with the series of 10 huge freestanding sculptures collectively called “Ruckus Manhattan” (1975–76). “Ever since I was a child I liked the idea of big things,” he explains. “Biblical film epics like ‘Samson and Delilah’ excited me; I was a big fan of Cecil B. DeMille.”

The artist did have a brief flirtation with film-making in the early 1960s. Among other endeavors, he collaborated with Rudy Burckhardt, the experimental filmmaker and photographer, on “Shoot the Moon.” “It was like an early silent film,” muses Grooms. “I was so naïve, I thought I could make popular films. It didn’t occur to me to actually go to work in the film business. I just liked working on my own.” There is, to be sure, a cinematic quality apparent in much of Grooms work, as if a whole comedy-drama were about to unfold on a giant screen.

At times, Grooms has referred to the colorful three-dimensional wall pieces that have been one of his fortes as “sculptural pictoramas,” which are mainly of acrylic or enamel on wood. “I’ve used every kind of paint,” he avers, including DuPont Imron, an industrial coating suitable for outdoor pieces. The painted-wood constructions are physically demanding to produce, he says. “There also are problems with these oversized pieces ‘breaking down.’ Working with oil keeps it simple. The one thing that’s important for artists is to make art.”

►Marlborough Gallery
New York
212.541.4900
www.marlboroughgallery.com
A solo exhibition of Grooms’ latest work will take place this fall.

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New York correspondent Dick Kagan is a freelance visual arts writer who most recently reported on how contemporary painters represent food in their art (May 2007).