German postage stamp, reproduces Café by G. Grosz

George Grosz (July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s. Events 657 - Battle of Siffin. 811 - Battle of Pliska; Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus Year 1893 ( MDCCCXCIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 1044 - The Battle of Ménfő takes place 1189 - Richard the Lionheart is crowned King of England The year 1959 ( MCMLIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. A caricature is either a Portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness or in literature a description Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. The 1920s is sometimes referred to as the " Jazz Age " or the " Roaring Twenties " when speaking about the United States and Canada He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group during the Weimar Republic before he emigrated to the United States in 1932. For other meanings see Dada (disambiguation DaDa is a Concept album by Alice Cooper, released The New Objectivity, or Neue Sachlichkeit (new dispassion was an art movement that arose in Germany in the early 1920s as an outgrowth of and in opposition to The term Weimar Republic ( ˈvaɪmarɐ repuˈbliːk is used by historians to signify the democratic and Republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933 The United States of America —commonly referred to as the

Biography

George Grosz was born Georg Ehrenfried Groß in Berlin, Germany but changed his name in 1916 out of a romantic enthusiasm for America^[1] that originated in his early reading of the books of James Fenimore Cooper, Bret Harte and Karl May, and which he retained for the rest of his life. Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. James Fenimore Cooper (September 15 1789 &ndash September 14 1851 was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century Bret Harte ( August 25, 1836 &ndash May 6, 1902) was an American Author and Poet, best remembered for his accounts Karl Friedrich May ( February 25, 1842 &ndash March 30, 1912) was one of the best selling German Writers of all time noted ^[2] (His artist friend and collaborator Helmut Herzfeld changed his name to John Heartfield at the same time. John Heartfield ( June 19, 1891 – April 26, 1968) is the anglicized name of the German Photomontage artist )

In 1914 Grosz volunteered for military service; like many other artists, he embraced the first world war as "the war to end all wars", but he was quickly disillusioned and was given a discharge after hospitalization in 1915. In January 1917 he was drafted for service, but in May he was discharged as permanently unfit. ^[3]

Grosz was arrested during the Spartakus uprising in January 1919, but escaped using fake identification documents; he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in the same year. The Spartacist uprising, also known as the January uprising, was a General strike (and the armed battles accompanying it in Germany from January 5 Year 1919 ( MCMXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The Communist Party of Germany ( German Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands &ndash KPD) was a major political party in Germany between 1918 In 1921 Grosz was accused of insulting the army, which resulted in a 300 German Mark fine and the destruction of the collection Gott mit uns ("God with us"), a satire on German society. The Reichswehr ( German for "National Defence" formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935 when it was Grosz left the KPD in 1922 after having spent five months in Russia and meeting Lenin and Trotsky, because of his antagonism to any form of dictatorial authority. Leon Trotsky ( Russian:, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij

In his drawings, usually in pen and ink which he sometimes developed further with watercolor, Grosz did much to create the image most have of Berlin and the Weimar Republic in the 1920s. Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. The term Weimar Republic ( ˈvaɪmarɐ repuˈbliːk is used by historians to signify the democratic and Republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933 Corpulent businessmen, wounded soldiers, prostitutes, sex crimes and orgies were his great subjects. His draftsmanship was excellent although the works he is best known for adopt a deliberately crude form of caricature. His oeuvre includes a few absurdist works, such as "Remember Uncle August the Happy Inventor" which has buttons sewn on it,^[4] and also includes a number of erotic artworks. ^[5]

Bitterly anti-Nazi, Grosz left Germany in 1932, a year before Hitler came to power, and was invited to teach at the Art Students League of New York in 1933, where he would teach intermittently until 1955. Year 1932 ( MCMXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. The Art Students League of New York is an Art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. Year 1933 ( MCMXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1938. Naturalization is the acquisition of Citizenship or Nationality by somebody who was not a citizen or national of that country when he or she was born Although a softening of his style had been apparent since the late 1920s, Grosz's work turned toward a sentimental romanticism in America, a change generally seen as a decline. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the ^[6]

He continued to exhibit regularly. He painted Cain, or Hitler in Hell (1944), showing the dead attacking Hitler in Hell, and in 1946 he published his autobiography, A Little Yes and a Big No. In the 1950s he opened a private art school at his home and also worked as Artist in Residence at the Des Moines Art Center. Grosz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1954. The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member organization whose goal is to "foster assist and sustain excellence" in American Literature, Though he had US citizenship, he resolved to return to Berlin, where he died on 6 July 1959 from the effects of falling down a flight of stairs after a night of drinking. Events 1044 - The Battle of Ménfő takes place 1189 - Richard the Lionheart is crowned King of England The year 1959 ( MCMLIX) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. ^[7]

In 1960, Grosz was the subject of the Oscar-nominated short film George Grosz' Interregnum. George Grosz' Interregnum is a 29-minute long documentary film about the artist George Grosz produced by Altina Carey and Charles Carey, and

Quotes

• A deeply disillusioned man, he saw humanity as essentially bestial and the city of Berlin as a sink of depravity and deprivation, its streets crowded with unprincipled profiteers, prostitutes, war-crippled dregs and a variety of perverts. A communist, his feeling of social outrage stimulated him to produce the most biting drawings and paintings. -Trewin Copplestone

• In Grosz's Germany, everything and everybody is for sale. All human transactions, except for the class solidarity of the workers, are poisoned. The world is owned by four breeds of pig: the capitalist, the officer, the priest and the hooker, whose other form is the sociable wife. He was one of the hanging judges of art. -Robert Hughes

• My aim is to be understood by everyone. I reject the 'depth' that people demand nowadays, into which you can never descend without a diving bell crammed with cabbalistic bullshit and intellectual metaphysics. This expressionistic anarchy has got to stop. . . a day will come when the artist will no longer be this bohemian, puffed-up anarchist but a healthy man working in clarity within a collectivist society. -Grosz

References

References

• Grosz, George (1946). A Little Yes and a Big No. New York: The Dial Press.
• Kranzfelder, Ivo (2005). George Grosz. Cologne: Benedikt Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-0891-1
• Michalski, Sergiusz (1994). New Objectivity. Cologne: Benedikt Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-9650-0
• Sabarsky, Serge, editor (1985). George Grosz: The Berlin Years. New York: Rizzoli. ISBN 0-8478-0668-5
• Schmied, Wieland (1978). Neue Sachlichkeit and German Realism of the Twenties. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. ISBN 0-7287-0184-7

External links

• http://www.tendreams.org/grosz.htm - Ten Dreams Galleries
• http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue9/younourishwithhate.htm - Mario Vargas Llosa on George Grosz in TATE ETC. magazine Spring 2007