The compelling Nancy Grossman (b. 1940) is perhaps best known for her meticulously hand-made leather masks and torsos. She made these two in the late 1960s, well before Pulp Fiction, and also well before a seeping general knowledge of S&M vernacular and motifs. Grossman herself skirts the issue of adult sexual sadism and masochism in her work. She points instead to elements of gender fluidity, restraint, and childhood abuse. Still, it’s possible (probable) that her art has informed the accessorizing of the kink community over the past half century.
No matter what, both of these works—which live just across the street from one another in Dallas—are fantastic.
Here’s one owned by the Dallas Museum of Art (on view now):
Nancy Grossman, Untitled (Head), 1968.
And here’s the Nasher Sculpture Center‘s:
Nancy Grossman, Bust, 1968.
