George Grosz

George Grosz was a German artist who was known for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity groups during the Weimar Republic. He emigrated to the United States in 1933, and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. Abandoning the style and subject matter of his earlier work, he exhibited regularly and taught for many years at the Art Students League of New York. In 1959 he returned to Berlin, where he died shortly afterwards. Grosz was born Georg Ehrenfried Groß in Berlin, Germany, the third child of a pub owner. His parents were devoutly Lutheran. Grosz grew up in the Pomeranian town of Stolp (now Słupsk, Poland). After his father's death in 1900, he moved to the Wedding district of Berlin with his mother and sisters. At the urging of his cousin, the young Grosz began attending a weekly drawing class taught by a local painter named Grot. Grosz developed his skills further by drawing meticulous copies of the drinking scenes of Eduard von Grützner, and by drawing imaginary battle scenes. He was expelled from school in 1908 for insubordination. From 1909 to 1911, he studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where his teachers were Richard Müller, Robert Sterl, Raphael Wehle, and Osmar Schindler. His first published drawing was in the satirical magazine Ulk in 1910. From 1912 until 1917 he studied at the Berlin College of Arts and Crafts under Emil Orlik. He began painting in oils in 1912. In November 1914 Grosz volunteered for military service, in the hope that by thus preempting conscription he would avoid being sent to the front. He was given a discharge after hospitalization for sinusitis in 1915. In 1916 he changed the spelling of his name to "de-Germanise" and internationalise his name – thus Georg became "George" (an English spelling), while in his surname he replaced the German "ß" with its phonetic equivalent "sz". He did this as a protest against German nationalism and out of a romantic enthusiasm for America – a legacy of his early reading of the books of James Fenimore Cooper, Bret Harte and Karl May – that he retained for the rest of his life. Grosz was influenced by expressionism, futurism and cubism, as well as by popular culture such as comics and graffiti. He was also drawn to the anarchic spirit of Dada, an anti-art movement that mocked the rationality and order of bourgeois society. He joined the Berlin Dada group in 1918, along with John Heartfield, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch and others. He used collage, photomontage and assemblage to create provocative works that criticized war, capitalism, corruption and sexual hypocrisy. He also experimented with sound poetry and performance art. In 1917 Grosz married Eva Peter, a cabaret dancer and model who appeared in many of his works. They had two sons, Martin and Peter. Grosz also had affairs with other women, some of whom committed suicide because of his rejection or neglect. Grosz was a prolific artist who produced thousands of drawings and paintings, as well as illustrations for books and magazines. He collaborated with the writer Wieland Herzfelde to publish several portfolios of lithographs, such as The Face of the Ruling Class (1921), Ecce Homo (1923) and The New Man (1924). These works were often confiscated or destroyed by the authorities for being obscene, blasphemous or seditious. Grosz was repeatedly sued and fined for his controversial art, and narrowly escaped a prison sentence in 1928. Grosz was also a political activist who joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1918. He participated in the failed Spartacist uprising in 1919, and later supported the Red Front Fighters' League, a paramilitary organization that fought against the Nazis. He depicted the social and economic inequalities of the Weimar Republic, as well as the rise of fascism, in his paintings and drawings. He used sharp lines, distorted forms, exaggerated features and garish colors to create grotesque caricatures of the ruling class, the military, the clergy and the Nazis. He contrasted them with the misery and suffering of the poor, the workers, the disabled and the victims of violence. In 1932 Grosz accepted an invitation to teach at the Art Students League of New York. He decided to stay in America after Hitler came to power in 1933. His work was included in the Nazi exhibition of "Degenerate Art" in 1937, and many of his paintings were confiscated or destroyed. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1938. Grosz's style changed significantly after his emigration. He abandoned his satirical and critical approach, and turned to more conventional and realistic subjects such as landscapes, still lifes, nudes and portraits. He also experimented with watercolors, ink washes and crayons. He continued to teach at the Art Students League until 1955, and also lectured at other institutions such as Columbia University and Yale University. He influenced many American artists, such as Ben Shahn, Robert Gwathmey and Jack Levine. In 1959 Grosz returned to Berlin for a retrospective exhibition of his work. He died of a stroke on July 6, 1959, at his home in West Berlin. He was buried at the Friedhof Heerstraße cemetery. His widow Eva donated his estate to the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) in Berlin. Grosz is regarded as one of the most important and influential artists of the 20th century. His work is admired for its powerful social commentary, its expressive technique and its originality. He is considered a pioneer of Dada, photomontage and New Objectivity, as well as a precursor of pop art and neo-expressionism. His work is held in many museums and collections around the world, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin.