Aaronel deRoy Gruber

Aaronel deRoy Gruber (1918-2011) was an internationally recognized artist who spent her career in Pittsburgh. Starting as an abstract painter in the early 1950s, she moved into sculpture and photography over a six-decade career.

The daughter of Joseph Israel DeRoy (1874-1934) and Bessie Leyser DeRoy (1889-1980), deRoy Gruber is from one of the oldest Jewish families in Western Pennsylvania. The DeRoy family is noted for their jewelry and pawnbroking businesses located throughout Pittsburgh during the first half of the 1900s. Unlike other branches of the family, Joseph I. didn’t go into the jewelry business but, rather, practiced dentistry after attending the University of Philadelphia. Bessie DeRoy was a talented seamstress who wished for her daughter to become a dress designer.

From a young age, deRoy Gruber had an interest in drawing. When she was a child, Aaronel’s mother took a course in etching at the University of Pittsburgh, but Bessie didn’t draw, so her daughter did the work for her.^[1]National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh Section Records, 1894-2011, AIS.1964.40, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System (online). It was at this time that Bessie and Aaronel started receiving flyers from the American Associated Artists as a result of Aaronel’s drawings, further exposing the young girl to art.

Growing up in Squirrel Hill, deRoy Gruber attended the Wightman School before graduating from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1936. While in high school, she started painting and took a special art class with art instructor Marie Dollard of which she was one of two girls in the class. This led deRoy Gruber to quit the class.^[2]ibid. After leaving the class, she signed up for Samuel Rosenberg’s evening life-drawing class at the Young Men and Women’s Hebrew Association.^[3]Aaronel deRoy Artist Statement, Aaronel deRoy Gruber Papers and Photographs [MSS 335], Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center (catalog record).

In 1940, deRoy Gruber earned a Bachelor of Science in Costume Economics from Carnegie Institute of Technology, where she studied design with Robert Lepper, color theory with Wilfred Readio, and painting with Samuel Rosenberg. She credits Robert Lepper with having the greatest influence because his style of painting and sculpture was more modern, matching her interests.^[4]Miller, Donald. Aaronel: The Art of Aaronel DeRoy Gruber, p.13. Pittsburgh, Pa: Hoechstetter Printing Company, Inc., 2000. Lepper also introduced her to plastics as an art form. Interested in the possibility of pursuing dress design, Aaronel also briefly studied at the Traphagen School of Design in New York City.

At the beginning of her last semester of college, Aaronel deRoy married Carnegie Tech alumnus Irving Gruber (1915-2013). Then, after graduation, Aaronel started work as a Fashion Coordinator at Kaufmann’s Department Store, where she worked for three years up until she was eight months pregnant with her first son, Jon (b. 1944).

After the birth of her first child, deRoy Gruber decided to put painting aside in order to focus on her growing family. During World War II, the Gruber family moved to Youngstown, Ohio while Irv Gruber ran the bomb-making factory for National Tube Works in McKeesport, Pa ^[5]Aaronel deRoy Gruber Susquehanna Art Museum oral history, Aaronel deRoy Gruber Papers and Photographs [MSS 335], Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center (catalog record). While in Youngstown, Aaronel worked at the Butler Institute of Art until she had her daughter, Jamie (b.1945). After the war’s end, the Gruber family returned to Squirrel Hill, settling on Beechwood Boulevard. As Jon and Jamie grew older, Aaronel took up painting once again and rejoined Sam Rosenberg’s class at the YM&WHA. Then in 1953, she had a third child, a son named Terry.

deRoy Gruber began her career in art as an abstract painter and was a member of abstract art association Group A, as well as the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh and later, Society of Sculptors.

deRoy Gruber was inspired to work with steel in the 1960s after being introduced to American abstract sculptor David Smith by Pittsburgh artist and critic Harry Schwalb at an awards dinner following the 1961 Associated Artists of Pittsburgh annual exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Smith encouraged deRoy Gruber to work with steel scraps. Her first forays into sculpture incorporated imposing consolidations of steel scraps, using the resources available to her through American Forge and Manufacturing. In the early 1970s, she began to use plastic in her work and later combined steel and plexiglass.

As an extension of her Plexiglas sculptures, deRoy Gruber created a jewelry and belt line called Geometrics with her daughter Jamie during the early 1970s. Aaronel designed the merchandise while Jamie handled all things business. Her Geometrics pieces were like small wearable sculptures that could be ordered directly from the designer or purchased in stores like Filenes Basement^[6]Geometrics Files, Aaronel deRoy Gruber Papers and Photographs [MSS 335], Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center (catalog record).

In the 1980s, deRoy Gruber turned to photography. She employed a range of photographic processes ranging from traditional methods to the latest technology. Her later work includes black and white infra-red panorama photographs of both landscape and architecture.

The Irving and Aaronel Gruber Foundation was founded on November 2, 2000, with a mission to support and promote Aaronel deRoy Gruber’s work. The Foundation also accepts her works of art.

Bibliography

Exhibit History

• Author: Catelyn Cocuzzi
• Originally Published: February 3, 2022
• Current Version: February 3, 2022