George Grosz
Born Georg Ehrenfried Gross in Berlin in 1893 and later known by his anglicized artist name, George Grosz was one of the most important socially critical painters, graphic artists and caricaturists of the 20th century.
His provocative depictions of the big city and its problematic excesses such as violence, death, perversions and social injustices, as well as his critical observations of political actors, the economy and the military in the Weimar Republic are particularly significant. His artistic style ranges from New Objectivity to Expressionist, Dadaist and Futurist influences.
After studying at the Royal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts in Dresden (1909-11) and graduating in 1912, during which time he made the acquaintance of Otto Dix, Grosz studied under Emil Orlik at the School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin. With the beginning of the First World War and his associated deployment as an infantryman, he not only turned to an anglicized name as a result of his enthusiasm for America, but also changed his pictorial subjects: as a strict opponent of war, he now illustrated the horror, mutilation and suffering that he encountered on the battlefield. Subsequent studies of Berlin and Grosz's co-founding of the Berlin Dada scene show deliberate artistic provocations against the war and the authoritarian bourgeoisie.
In 1919, Grosz became a member of the November Group and the KPD (Communist Party of Germany). Even after the end of the war, Grosz devoted himself intensively to the revolt and what he saw as the decaying value system of his homeland. Exhibitions at the Galerie Neue Kunst in Munich and later with Alfred Flechtheim in Düsseldorf followed. In 1932, Grosz received a teaching position at the Art Students League of New York and finally emigrated to the USA with his family in 1933.
His late American work (he created around 280 paintings) undergoes a change in style: delicate watercolors, still lifes and nudes emerge and, according to Grosz, reveal an increasingly "more artistic" approach. Grosz returned to Germany in 1959. Grosz dies in Berlin in 1959.
