Date:1965 Medium:Cast bronze on swiveling wood base Dimensions:Figure: 27 1/4 x 6 in. Base: 7 x 7 x 3 in. Total height: approx. 30 1/4 in.
Description
One of Gross’s most elegant and fully resolved bronze sculptures, Standing Ballerina embodies the artist’s lifelong fascination with dancers and the expressive possibilities of the human form in motion. The figure rises lightly from a firmly grounded stance, her weight shifting subtly to one leg as her torso twists upward in a continuous spiral. This upward motion creates a rhythmic, almost musical flow that invites the viewer to move around the sculpture. The ballerina is mounted on one of Gross’s characteristic swiveling wooden bases, enabling the work to be rotated — a kinetic feature that reinforces Gross’s belief that sculpture must be experienced in the round. The form is both classical and modern: elongated, graceful, and distilled into strong vertical and diagonal rhythms rather than descriptive detail. Cast in 1965, this bronze belongs to a mature period in which Gross combined the clarity of his early direct-carving style with the fluidity and lift of mid-century American modernism. Among his dancer bronzes, works of this scale are particularly desirable.
Provenance Lombardo Collection → Velvet Foundation for the Arts (VLAF)
