Aaronel deRoy Gruber (1918-2011)

From childhood in Pittsburgh, Aaronel deRoy Gruber was interested in drawing. While earning a bachelor of science degree at Carnegie Institute of Technology, (now Carnegie Mellon), she studied with several outstanding professors in the institute’s College of Fine Arts: Samuel Rosenberg, Roy Hilton, Wilfred Readio, and Robert Lepper (the latter of which, would go on to inspire Andy Warhol and Philip Pearlstein).

Gruber’s practice has always been multi-faceted, at various times focusing on painting, sculpture (steel and plexiglass), and even photography. In the 1960s, she was consumed by abstraction in sculpture - an interest that originated with the era’s foremost American abstract sculptor, David Smith. She was first introduced to Smith in 1961, where he - along with renowned first generation AbEx painter Theodoros Stamos - awarded her abstract painting Mystery (1961) first prize at the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh annual exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Art. Through her husband, Irving Gruber - who was president of American Forge & Manufacturing Co. - Smith encouraged her to explore the possibilities of creating works out of steel.

As sculpture in plastic began to emerge as a popular medium, Gruber began crafting steel and Plexiglas kinetic objects, becoming an innovator in the growing field of polymer and motor-driven sculpture. This path was further encouraged by the venerable Bertha Schaefer - Gruber’s New York dealer - suggested that she use lighter materials. In 1968, she was invited to exhibit in “Made in Plastic,” the first exhibition of its kind, at the Flint (MI) Institute of Art, which acquired her large wall sculpture made of Uvex, another vacuum-formed plastic. The next year she participated in the Jewish Museum’s “A Plastic Presence,” New York City’s first exhibition of this type of sculpture. Ultimately, for the next 20 years, Gruber produced hundreds of colored Plexiglas sculptures, often self-illuminated and revolving, that were seen in scores of exhibitions. Gruber’s sculptures were acquired by more than 500 public and private collectors around the world.

In the 1980s, she was encouraged by her son Terry, a professional photographer in New York, to return to photography as a serious subject. Long known for her artistic vision, Gruber employed photographic processes that ranged from traditional methods to the most advanced digital technology that was available at the time.

Gruber’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the Frick Art Museum, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Kawamura Museum of Modern Art in Japan.

Source: The Irving and Aaronel deRoy Gruber Foundation