*This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated. 1993.01.11 : Sculpture -- "Happy Mother" Contact: Campbell Gardett (202) 690-6343 January 11, 1993 "Happy Mother," a major work by the eminent American sculptor Chaim Gross, was recently accepted by the General Services Administration for permanent display in the Hubert H. Humphrey Building of the Department of Health and Human Services. The sculpture will be formally dedicated by HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., at a ceremony to take place in the Great Hall of the Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Ave., S.W., Wednesday, Jan. 13 at 11:30 a.m. Seven and a half feet in horizontal length and four feet high, the sculpture depicts a reclining mother with children bouncing on her knees. Valued at $150,000, the sculpture will be located in the northeast corner of the Great Hall lobby of the Humphrey Building where it will be visible to passersby as well as to people entering the building. In announcing the gift to the federal government, Secretary Sullivan said: "This sculpture symbolizes the importance of the family and of the welfare of children as foundations of healthy American life. It makes an unmistakable statement about the commitment of the Department of Health and Human Services, and it is appropriate that the sculpture will reside in the building named after Hubert Humphrey. The General Services Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services are grateful to Mrs. Gross and to her late husband for donating this fine sculpture to the nation." In making the gift, Mrs. Chaim Gross said: "My husband and I were long-standing admirers of Senator and Vice President Humphrey for the combination of integrity and compassion that he gave to American public life and were therefore very pleased to respond to Secretary Sullivan's request for such a symbolic work." Born in the Carpathian Mountains of what is today Austria, Chaim Gross came to this country in 1921 at the age of 17. After struggling single-handedly for many years to become an artist, he steadily gained recognition among American sculptors as one of the foremost carver of wood. He also remained very active throughout his life as an art teacher in New York and in the art colony of Provincetown, Mass. The sculpture "Happy Mother" joins several other Gross works on permanent display in Washington, including a frieze above one of the portals of the Federal Trade Commission at Sixth and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., a mural in the Post Office Building and a bust of Hubert H. Humphrey at the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution. Works by Chaim Gross are also in the collections of the National Museum of American Art, the Hirshhorn Museum and the American University. Participants in the Jan. 13 ceremony, at which Secretary Sullivan will officiate, will be Mimi Gross, daughter of the sculptor and an artist herself; Frances Humphrey Howard, sister of the late vice president; and Warren Robbins, founder of the National Museum of African Art, who will briefly assess Gross' significance in the history of American art. ###