'Visions of Israel: The Art and Illustrations of Chaim Gross'

"Peace Over Jerusalem (Shalom)," by Chaim Gross (lithograph, 1975). Courtesy of the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation.

Chaim Gross, self-portrait.

The Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies is celebrating the 65th anniversary of the State of Israel with a new exhibition titled "Visions of Israel: The Art and Illustrations of Chaim Gross" in the University's Museum of Jewish Civilization (located in Mortensen Library).

The exhibit, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Greenberg Center, the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation, and the Hartzel Lebed Endowment Fund.

The exhibit will be open through September 2013. For museum hours, or to schedule a docent-led tour of the museum, call the Greenberg Center at 860.768.4964 or email mgcjs@hartford.edu.

Chaim Gross (1904–1991) was a well-known sculptor. He was born in the then Austro-Hungarian village of Kolomyia (now part of the Ukraine) and immigrated to the United States in 1921. Works by Gross can be found in major museums and private collections throughout the United States.

Gross is well-known for his Jewish subjects, such as the 1968 suite of lithographs, The Jewish Holidays. A major impetus for Gross’s Jewish subjects was his first trip to Israel in June 1949, almost a year after Israel’s declaration of statehood on May 14, 1948. Gross returned to Israel for a second time in 1951. He stayed for three months to paint a series of 40 watercolors of life in various cities.

The exhibit at the University's Museum of Jewish Civilization features sketchbooks, works on paper, and sculpture related to Gross's trips to Israel in 1949 and 1951. It also includes print projects from the 1960s and '70s to commemorate Israel and other Jewish themes.