8. Nancy Grossman – Head
I was always taken by the S&M qualities of these sculptures by Nancy Grossman. In the 1960s, Grossman began creating her famous sculptures of heads, which she carefully carved from the wood of discarded telephone poles, overlaid with leather, and then adorned with zippers, glass eyes, enamel noses, spikes, and straps. While their size, shape, and facial features suggest masculinity, she refers to them as self-portraits, implying the mutability of gender and demonstrating that all artwork offers something of the artist. Exquisite as they are, the heads threaten to overshadow the rest of Grossman’s art, largely due to sensationalistic interpretations that see the sculptures exclusively in a sadomasochistic frame. But these works also contain the central aspects of Grossman’s art: an embrace of gender ambiguity, an interest in formal contradiction and conflict, an audacious use of leather, and a rich sensuality. Grossman’s sculptures appeal as much to the olfactory and tactile senses as to the visual; they taunt viewers with their invitation to touch.