Major Exhibition of Works by George Grosz announced at Berlin's Akademie der Kunste

Written by Karl Grossinger Saturday, 12 November 2011 22:12

BERLIN.- For the first time, the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) is presenting a large-scale selection of the abundance of material on George Grosz preserved in its art collection and archive. Two hundred sketchbooks, drawings from his youth up to the time of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), including such famous pictures as “Friedrichstraße” and “Christus mit Gasmaske” (Christ with a Gas Mask), portfolio works, journals, collages, photographs and written documents allow a glimpse into the life and artistic workshop of George Grosz. The incorruptible view of the ingenious draughtsman and political artist, who influenced our image of the Weimar Republic more than any other, thus becomes clear.

A comprehensive collection of drawings from his youth, until now largely unknown, together with 23 studies for the portraits of Max Hermann-Neisse which were found again in Berlin only in 1984, reveal how early on Grosz targeted the representatives of society, also capturing their mentality in his representation of types and the typical.

As the core of the exhibition, the sketchbooks, in particular, document the vocabulary of the artist, who was armed everywhere with pencil and notebook for the spontaneous and precise notations of his impressions - in Berlin and New York , in the streets of large cities and on seaside holidays.

His sharply drawn views and insights were revealed, pointedly and in compressed form, in drawings, graphic series and contemporary publications. This interplay of original and printed work for the largest possible medial distribution of his criticism of society, state and church is found in journals such as “Der blutige Ernst” (Deadly Serious), “Die Pleite” (The Crash) and famous graphic series including “Gott mit uns“ (God with Us), “Hintergrund” (Background) and “Ecce Homo”, which repeatedly brought the artist before the court.

Dadaistic montages, artist’s postcards as well as picture and text collages make it clear how consistently Grosz condensed the realities of life with the montage principle. A variety of private and official photographs, including portraits of Arnold Newman and Irving Penn, as well as film and sound documents, complete the multi-layered overview.

In 1921 his album "Gott mit uns" (God with us) brought Grosz charges of defaming the Reichswehr (army); in 1924 he was prosecuted for offences against public morality by his album "Ecce Homo" (the album was confiscated as being pornographic); in 1928 for his drawing "Shut up and keep serving the cause" he was accused of blasphemy. All these scandals only helped consolidate his fame.

Grosz's works of the 1920s were influenced by a complicated political and economical situation in the post-war Germany and Europe and in one sentence can be characterized as political and social satire. He himself wrote about that time: "Everywhere, hymns of hatred were struck up. Everyone was hated: the Jews, the capitalists, the Junkers, the Communists, the army, the property owners, the workers, the unemployed, the black Reichwehr, the control commissions, the politicians, the department stores, and the Jews again. It was an orgy of incitement, and the republic itself was a weak thing, scarcely perceptible. … It was a completely negative world, topped with colorful froth that many imagined to be true, happy Germany before the onset of the new barbarism."

In 1932, invited to lecture to the Arts Student League in NY, Grosz visited the USA, and the following year emigrated there together with his wife and two sons. In the USA he resumed teaching with the Art Students League in NY. In the USA both his works and behavior changed radically – no more attacks on society, the artist's commitment to the class struggle was gone. This resignation was not sincere; in his autobiography, "Ein kleiness Ja und ein Grosses Nein" (A Small Yes and a Big No), Grosz later wrote: "My motto was now to give offence to none and be pleasing to all. Assimilation is straightforward once one overcomes the greatly overvalued superstition concerning character. To have character generally means that one is distinctly inflexible, not necessarily for reasons of age. Anyone who plans to get ahead and make money would do well to have no character at all. The second rule for fitting in is to think everything beautiful! Everything – that is to say, including things that are not beautiful in reality."

Grosz taught at the Art Students League till 1936. He also had a private art school, his students were mainly society ladies. From 1937 to 1939 he was the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, which enabled him to devote time to his own work. He was not rich, but he got by comfortably. In 1938 Grosz was stripped of his German citizenship, numerous of his works were burnt by the Nazis.

On the whole Grosz's artistic works during his American period are not very interesting. Of more importance maybe his teaching activities and the autobiography "A Little Yes and Big No" published in 1946. In 1954 Grosz was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and in 1958 to the Academy of Fine Arts of Germany. His last works in America were collages, which partly recall his Dada period and partly were influenced by Pop Art.

In 1959 Grosz returned to Berlin for good, and only a month later he died there, in his house.

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