American Art Collaborative

Chaim Gross grew up in a large and loving Jewish family with ten brothers and sisters. When he was very young, Gross saw his parents nearly beaten to death for their religious beliefs by Cossack soldiers. As an adult, he compensated for this trauma by sculpting large families, as in Happy Children, which shows two small children emulating the adults who dance with them. The larger figures and the ring of bronze symbolically protect the children, as Gross's parents had been unable to do