Bettina Grossman

Bettina Grossman (September 28, 1927 – November 2, 2021; also knows as Bettina or Bettina Bayshi or Bayshi) was an American conceptual artist, best known for her longtime residency at the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan and her eccentric and enigmatic persona. In many of her works, she was a pioneer in contemporary art. She remained out of the limelight for much of her life, and religiously produced a significant body of work for decades.

In 2021, Grossman, at the age of 93, became the first female artist to have her works simultaneously exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York City and MoMA PS1 - one of the largest institutions in the United States dedicated to contemporary art.

Bettina Grossman has gained a community and significant visibility in her final years and her work is posthumously being archived, curated, and exhibited across the world.

Biography

Bettina Grossman was born in Brooklyn, to Saul and Pauline Grossman on 28 September 1927. She had three siblings. The family lived in Borough Park and observed Orthodox Judaism. Grossman was distant from her family and pursued her own artistic interests in New York City.

Grossman studied commercial art in high school and worked as a textile designer, making enough money to move to Europe and pursue art during the 1950s and 1960s. She moved back to New York City and produced art out of her studio in Brooklyn, which got destroyed in a fire. Heartbroken but resilient, Grossman went back to Europe to reproduce what was lost and eventually came back and settled into Manhattan's historic and legendary Hotel Chelsea, a haven for artists, musicians, and cultural icons.

As one of the longest Hotel Chelsea residents, Grossman lived among other legendary artists and talent such as Andy Warhol, Billy Reid, Ed Hamilton, Madonna, René Richard, and many others. She lived in Apartment 503, which doubled as her living quarters and art studio. Over the next several decades, Grossman produced a body of prolific work that is now part of her collection and spans across various contemporary art mediums. During this time, Grossman was also referred to as the "most beautiful woman to have ever lived in Chelsea".

Over the years, Grossman's apartment became overloaded with years of accumulated art and materials, so she resorted to sleeping in a lawn chair in the hallway with limited resources to safeguard her collection elsewhere. She was trapped by the genius body of her own work. In 2005, Grossman was the subject of a documentary film Bettina by Sam Bassett and the two shared a friendship. She was the subject of an award-winning 2012 documentary film, Girl With Black Balloons, directed by filmmaker Corinne van der Borch.

In the 2010s and in her 80s, Grossman generally found it difficult to trust people and had a difficult time owing to her declining mobility, neglect, and fragility due to old age. She was isolated.

In 2018, Grossman accidentally met a UNESCO professional Varun Khanna in Chelsea, who was visiting New York and rapidly and mysteriously developed a deep friendship and was introduced to her art collection.

Together with another Hotel Chelsea resident Rachel Cohen of Mercura Sunglasses and filmmaker van der Borch, Khanna mobilized to take care of the welfare of Grossman and her art works in her final years under the banner of One Woman's Work as per Grossman's wishes.

They invited French-Moroccan visual artist and art curator Yto Barrada in early 2019, who had met Grossman a few years prior, to assist with the safeguarding of Grossman's collection and worked on a catalogue raisonné of her work. Subsequently, this collaboration led to Bettina's first exhibition in decades The Power of Two Suns with Barrada, which was on view at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Arts Center at the Governors' Island in New York. In early 2020, Grossman's wood work was flown to Germany to displayed in Hamburg's Sfeir-Semler Gallery.

In 2021, Bettina Grossman became the first female artist to have her works simultaneously exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York City and MoMA PS1 - one of the largest institutions in the United States dedicated to contemporary art.

Despite her decades long career and a lifetime of artistic pursuit, Grossman finally began to experience notoriety for her work during her final years like fellow contemporary artist Carmen Herrera.

Artwork

Grossman’s oeuvre consists of drawings, sculpture, and photographs. An example includes the photographic series Phenomenology Project (1979–80), featuring distorted views of New York City seen from window reflections. Grossman's prolific body of work includes sculpture, photography, painting, printmaking, film, drawing, and text.

In summer 2022, Bettina Grossman's first monograph was launched, edited by Barrada and photographed and edited by Swiss photographer Gregor Huber. Bettina was the winner of the Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award Arles in 2020. The materials for this first monograph of Grossman were discussed before Grossman's passing by her in consultation with her team members including Cohen, van Borch, Khanna, and ultimately put together by the book editors and curators Barrada and Huber. It is co-published by Aperture and ditions Xavier Barral and be available in all major bookstores and online retail shops globally.

Exhibitions

In 2019, Barrada and Grossman collaborated on a project that explored concepts of ecological devastation. The exhibition, titled The Power of Two Suns, was on view at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Arts Center at Governors Island. Prior to her death, Grossman was one of 47 contemporary artists featured in the 2021 iteration of Greater New York, MoMA PS.1’s annual survey of New York-based artists. At the age of 94, she was the oldest artist in the exhibition. The same year, her work was also exhibited at MoMA.

In July 2022, the first posthumous solo exhibition of Bettina Grossman called Bettina. A Poem of Perpetual Renewal opened in Arles, France at the Les Rencontres d'Arles with support of Kering's Women in Motion Lab. This will be followed by the book launch of Grossman's first monograph, globally.

Death and Legacy

Grossman had almost completely lost her voice and mobility during the Covid-19 pandemic which made it difficult for her to communicate her artistic wishes and caused frustration. She passed away from respiratory failure on 2 November 2021 at the age of 94 at a care center in Brooklyn where she had spent her final months due to declining health due to old age, concerned about her art collection. She was flown to be buried in Israel soon after.

Subsequently, a memorial ceremony in honor of Grossman, one of the longest Hotel Chelsea residents, was organized by Khanna and Cohen in the lobby of Hotel Chelsea on 19 December 2021. Grossman's collection was moved out of her famous studio apartment 503 by her friends and art curators.

As of 2022, the Studio of Yto Barrada has taken charge of archiving and showcasing the collection of Bettina Grossman, where much is still left to be uncovered and understood. Grossman spent an entire life in the pursuit of art and Barrada aims to bring to light the genius of her work over the years to come, as a "living artist who carries the legacy of the other", noting that "...the scandal was the Bettina was overlooked, like so many female artists of her generation."

In July 2022, a film Dreaming Walls featuring Bettina Grossman and another longtime resident Merle Lister, an elderly dancer, choreographer as protagonists by Maya Duverdier and Amélie van Elmbt premeired at the Tribeca Film Festival and screens across the United States and on several online platforms.

The film focuses on residents of the Hotel Chelsea and was dedicated to Bettina Grossman.