Arthur Grossman
“My work is an exploration of the beauty to be found in things that are normally either not seen, ignored, or felt to be a blight. I seek organic forms in the alterations to man-made objects which are caused by time and environment. All of the surfaces are man-made, i.e. metal, wood, concrete, or fiberglass. The images are all made from the actual physical objects themselves, with no intervention on my part.
The work may be viewed simply as art, with no reference to what it comes from, or it may be viewed as a statement about what happens to man-made surfaces through time. As in any abstract art, the viewer brings his/her own perspective to the work and sees in it what he or she is prepared to see.
Arthur Grossman Born in New York City in 1934.
At the early age of eleven, just as WWII was ending, he was discovering music and photography with equal interest.
He has dedicated his professional life to both.
As a photographer, he has followed his lens and has allowed it to capture a wide variety of scenes including street photography and rehearsal photographs of several musicians, among them Pablo Casals. His photographs of Pablo Casals have been exhibited worldwide and are in many museum collections.
For the last twenty years he has focused on abstract color images. Publications of these abstract images include Leica Fotographie, as well as a book, which was published by the Yunnan Fine Arts Press.
Most recently, having just returned from a safari in Tanzania in 2006 he has begun wildlife photography.
Many viewers say that they feel the music in the images he captures with his lens.
As a musician, he joined the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra at the age of thirteen. Upon graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music, he joined the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra which was stationed in Europe and with which he performed for three years, during which time he participated in the creation of the Seventh Army Wind Quintet, which became the Soni Ventorum Wind Quintet, of which he is a founding member.
After having served as principal bassoon in the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, he was asked by Pablo Casals to help form the wind faculty of the newly created Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. Seven years and several recordings later he moved to Seattle to join the faculty of the School of Music of the University of Washington where he became Associate Dean for Arts of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, a position in which he served for ten years and where he taught bassoon to many, today renowned, bassoonists.
He continues to perform, most recently he performed at the 10th anniversary of the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 2007.