Revolutionary artist Georg Gross. Georg Gross. Politically engaged avant-gardism Gross paintings

Georg Ehrenfried Groß or Georges Groß (German: Georg Ehrenfried Groß, German: George Grosz, July 26, 1893, Berlin - July 6, 1959, ibid.) - German painter, graphic artist and caricaturist.

In 1909-1911 studied fine arts at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (in the workshop of Richard Müller), in 1912-1916. continued his education at the Berlin School of Art and Industry (in the workshop of Emil Orlik). In 1912-1913 he was in Paris, got acquainted with the latest art, discovered the graphics of Daumier and Toulouse-Lautrec. In 1914 he enlisted in the German army as a volunteer, was hospitalized in 1915 and demobilized, released from military service in 1917.

Gross's drawings appeared in mid-1916 in the Berlin magazine New Youth. Soon the artist attracted attention. Several famous critics and publicists wrote about him, and publications of his drawings were published. Gross chose the life of Berlin with its immorality, whirlpool of entertainment and vices as the main subject of the image.

By inclinations and habits he was a dandy, an adventurer. In 1916, he changed his first and last name out of romantic love for America, which he knew from the novels of Fenimore Cooper (his friend and co-author Helmut Herzfeld took the pseudonym John Heartfield, under which he later became famous as a master of satirical photomontage). In 1918, Gross became one of the founders of the Berlin Dada group.

He took part in the Spartacist (Spartacist) uprising in 1919, was arrested, but avoided prison by using false documents. In the same year he joined the Communist Party of Germany, in 1922 he left its ranks, having previously visited Moscow. In 1923, he became chairman of the “Red Group”, an association of proletarian artists formed around the satirical magazine “Dubinka”, created by the German Communist Party. The "Red Group" initiated and organized the first exhibition of new German art in the Soviet Union.

He drew for the satirical magazine “Simplicissimus”, illustrated Alphonse Daudet’s novel “The Adventures of Tartarin from Tarascon” (1921), and acted as a set designer. In 1921, he was accused of insulting the German army, he was fined, and a series of his satirical drawings “God With Us” was destroyed by a court verdict.

In 1924-1925 and 1927 he again lived in Paris, at which time his works were exhibited at the first exhibition of German art in Moscow. In 1928 he joined the Association of Revolutionary Artists of Germany. In 1932 he emigrated to the USA, from 1933-1955 he taught in New York, and in 1938 he received American citizenship. In Nazi Germany, his work was classified as “degenerate art.” Gross published an autobiographical book, “A Little Yes and a Big No” (1946). In the 1950s, he opened a private art school at his home, and in 1954 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1959, the artist returned to Germany, to West Berlin. A few weeks after his return, Grosz was found dead on his doorstep after a stormy night.

Gross's drawings and caricatures of the 1920s, which bring his work closer to expressionism, aptly recreate the situation in Germany on the eve of Hitler's rise to power, its growing absurdity and hopelessness. Gross owns a series of drawings “Cain, or Hitler in Hell” (1944). An erotic theme occupies a significant place in his graphics, which he treats in his usual harsh and grotesque spirit.

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Georg Ehrenfried Gross or Georges Gros(German) Georg Ehrenfried Groß, German George Grosz, July 26, Berlin - July 6, ibid.) - German painter, graphic artist and caricaturist.

Biography

In 1909-1911 studied fine arts at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (in the workshop of Richard Müller), in 1912-1916. continued his education at the Berlin School of Art and Industry (in the workshop of Emil Orlik). In 1912-1913 he was in Paris, became acquainted with the latest art, and discovered the graphics of Daumier and Toulouse-Lautrec. In 1914 he enlisted in the German army as a volunteer, was hospitalized in 1915 and demobilized, released from military service in 1917.

Gross's drawings appeared in mid-1916 in the Berlin magazine New Youth. Soon the artist attracted attention - several famous critics and publicists wrote about him, and publications of his drawings were published. Gross chose the life of Berlin with all its immorality, whirlpool of entertainment and vices as the main subject of the image.

By inclinations and habits he was a dandy, an adventurer, a playmaker. In 1916, he changed his first and last name out of romantic love for America, which he knew from the novels of Fenimore Cooper. [[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]] (his friend and co-author Helmut Herzfeld took the pseudonym John Heartfield, under which he later became famous as a master of satirical photomontage). In 1918, Gross became one of the founders of the Berlin Dada group.

Drew for a satirical magazine "Simplicissimus", illustrated the novel by Alphonse Daudet "The Adventures of Tartarin of Tarascon"(), acted as a set designer. In 1921, he was accused of insulting the German army, he was fined, a series of his satirical drawings "God is with us" was destroyed by court order.

Essays

• George Grosz, Ach knallige Welt, du Lunapark, Gesammelte Gedichte, München, Wien, 1986.
• Gross Georg. Thoughts and creativity. M.: Progress, 1975.- 139 p.

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Notes

Literature

• Lewis B.I. George Grosz: art and politics in the Weimar Republic. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971
• Fischer L. George Grosz in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1976.
• Klassiker der Karikatur. George Grosz. Eulenspiegel. Verlag, Berlin.1979
• Sabarsky S. George Grosz: the Berlin years. New York: Rizzoli, 1985
• Flavell M.K. George Grosz, a biography. New Haven: Yale U.P., 1988
• McCloskey B. George Grosz and the Communist Party: art and radicalism in crisis, 1918 to 1936. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1997.
• Vargas Llosa M. Ein trauriger, rabiater Mann: über George Grosz. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, ​​2000
• George Grosz: Zeichnungen für Buch und Bühne. Berlin: Henschel, 2001
• Anders G. George Grosz. Paris: Allia, 2005.
• Reinhardt L. Georg Gross (1893-1959)// Art, No. 12, 1973. P.43-47.
• Quirt Ulbrich. Georg Gros // Artists of the 20th century. Through the pages of the magazine "Creativity". - M., Soviet artist, 1974. - 66-71 p.

Links

• Wikimedia Commons logo Wikimedia Commons has media on the topic Georg Gross

Excerpt characterizing Gross, Georg

- No! – I immediately snapped. “That’s not why I came here, you know, North.” I came for help. Only you can help me destroy Karaffa. After all, what he does is your fault. Help me!
The North became even more sad... I knew in advance what he would answer, but I did not intend to give up. Millions of good lives were put on the scale, and I could not so easily give up the fight for them.
– I already explained to you, Isidora...
- So explain it further! – I abruptly interrupted him. – Explain to me how you can sit quietly with your hands folded when human lives are extinguished one after another through your own fault?! Explain how such scum as Karaffa can exist, and no one has the desire to even try to destroy him?! Explain how you can live when this happens next to you?..
Bitter resentment bubbled up inside me, trying to spill out. I almost screamed, trying to reach his soul, but I felt that I was losing. There was no turning back. I didn't know if I would ever get there again, and I had to take every opportunity before I left.
- Look around, North! All over Europe your brothers and sisters are burning with living torches! Can you really sleep peacefully hearing their screams??? How can you not have bloody nightmares?!
His calm face was distorted by a grimace of pain:
– Don’t say that, Isidora! I have already explained to you - we should not interfere, we are not given such a right... We are guardians. We only protect KNOWLEDGE.
– Don’t you think that if you wait any longer, there will be no one to preserve your knowledge for?! – I exclaimed sadly.
– The earth is not ready, Isidora. I already told you this...
– Well, perhaps it will never be ready... And someday, in about a thousand years, when you look at it from your “tops”, you will see only an empty field, perhaps even overgrown with beautiful flowers, because that at this time there will be no more people on Earth, and there will be no one to pick these flowers... Think, North, is this the future you wished for the Earth?!..
But the North was protected by a blank wall of faith in what it said... Apparently, they all firmly believed that they were right. Or someone once instilled this faith in their souls so firmly that they carried it through centuries, without opening up and not allowing anyone into their hearts... And I couldn’t break through it, no matter how hard I tried.
– There are few of us, Isidora. And if we intervene, it is possible that we will also die... And then it will be as easy as shelling pears even for a weak person, not to mention someone like Caraffa, to take advantage of everything we keep. And someone will have power over all living things. This happened once before... A very long time ago. The world almost died then. Therefore, forgive me, but we will not interfere, Isidora, we have no right to do this... Our Great Ancestors bequeathed to us to protect ancient KNOWLEDGE. And that's what we're here for. What do we live for? We didn't even save Christ once... Although we could have. But we all loved him very much.
– Do you want to say that one of you knew Christ?!.. But that was so long ago!.. Even you cannot live that long!
“Why – a long time ago, Isidora?” Sever was sincerely surprised. “That was only a few hundred ago!” But we live much longer, you know. How could you live if you wanted...
– Several hundred?!!! – North nodded. – But what about the legend?!.. After all, according to it, already one and a half thousand years have passed since his death?!..
– That’s why she is a “legend”... – Sever shrugged, – After all, if she were the Truth, she wouldn’t need the custom-made “fantasies” of Paul, Matthew, Peter and the like?.. With all that, that these “holy” people had never even seen the living Christ! And he never taught them. History repeats itself, Isidora... It was so, and it will always be so until people finally begin to think for themselves. And while Dark Minds think for them, only struggle will always rule on Earth...
North fell silent, as if deciding whether to continue. But, after thinking a little, he nevertheless spoke again...
– “Thinking Dark Ones” from time to time give humanity a new God, always choosing him from the best, the brightest and the purest... but precisely those who are definitely no longer in the Circle of the Living. Because, you see, it is much easier to “dress” a dead person with a false “story of his Life” and release it into the world, so that it brings to humanity only what is “approved” by the “Thinking Dark Ones,” forcing people to plunge even deeper into the ignorance of the Mind , swaddling their Souls more and more into the fear of inevitable death, and thereby putting shackles on their free and proud Life...
– Who are the Thinking Dark Ones, North? – I couldn’t stand it.
– This is the Dark Circle, which includes “gray” Magi, “black” magicians, money geniuses (their own for each new period of time), and much more. Simply, it is the Earthly (and not only) unification of “dark” forces.
– And you don’t fight them?!!! You talk about this so calmly, as if it doesn’t concern you!.. But you also live on Earth, North!
A deadly melancholy appeared in his eyes, as if I had accidentally touched upon something deeply sad and unbearably painful.
- Oh, we fought, Isidora!.. How we fought! It was a long time ago... I, like you now, was too naive and thought that all you had to do was show people where the truth was and where the lies were, and they would immediately rush to attack for a “just cause.” These are just “dreams about the future,” Isidora... Man, you see, is an easily vulnerable creature... Too easily succumbed to flattery and greed. And other various “human vices”... People first of all think about their needs and benefits, and only then about the “other” living. Those who are stronger thirst for Power. Well, the weak look for strong defenders, not at all interested in their “cleanliness.” And this continues for centuries. That is why in any war the brightest and best die first. And the rest of the “remainers” join the “winner”... And so it goes in a circle. The earth is not ready to think, Isidora. I know you don’t agree, because you yourself are too pure and bright. But one person cannot overthrow the common EVIL, even someone as strong as you. Earthly Evil is too big and free. We tried once... and lost the best. That is why we will wait until the right time comes. There are too few of us, Isidora.

“We organized Dadaist evenings, charged a few marks for admission and considered it our task to tell people only the truth, which meant insulting them. We did not soften our expressions and expressed ourselves something like this: “Hey you, you old pile of crap in the front row, yes, you dumb ass with an umbrella!” or “Why are you smiling, you idiot?” And if someone snapped back, we could yell: “Shut up your spittoon or you will get your ass!” Georg Gross

Question: what are the similarities between Georg Gross (1893-1959) and Levik Kazovsky? Answer: yes, nothing. You just need to start somewhere. It’s boring to start with the fact that Georg Gross (1893-1959) was born in 1893 in Berlin, as he himself said, to the sound of champagne corks, because his father worked as a waiter in the officers’ mess, and his mother was a seamstress, and she it was quiet at work, but there wasn’t enough money and the family moved to Pomerania - you’d think there was money there in Pomerania - and in Pomerania Georg went to school, from which he was kicked out, because at the age of 15 he slapped a school teacher, and so for him, Georg, his childhood ended and who knows what began, but about this we can definitely say that it was also difficult phew... In 1909, Georg Gross entered the Royal Academy of Arts in Dresden.

Dresden at that time was a hotbed of expressionism - the group "Bridge" worked there. Gross, of course, with all his strength and enthusiasm experienced the influence of these good artists and began to make such rather moderate pictures:

Blue morning

Or these, which are not at all moderate:

End of the road

In 1913, he spent several months in Paris, where he became acquainted with the latest achievements of modern art. In general, by the beginning of the First World War, Gross was completely ready to endure the difficult karma of an avant-garde artist, but then the war began.

Gross volunteered for the army, but did not have time to get to the front, because... got sick with inflammation of the ear. He was commissioned, and he began to mock reality and, especially, the army, which he had seen enough of, through caricatures published in a bunch of different magazines.

Fit for active service

Drill

Festival

Riot of crazy people

In fact, if Gross had not done anything else, he would have already ended up in art history - these pictures are now recognized as classics of socio-political caricature. The German authorities immediately appreciated their quality and periodically fined Gross acceptable sums for mocking the army, the church, the state apparatus and Germany as a whole*. But no criminal cases were opened and they were certainly not put in prison, despite the war and, so to speak, the dominance of the notorious Prussian militarism. Do you feel the difference? This is what I compare with us.

But Gross also painted in oils. These were tense, disharmonious, harsh in color, light and meaning of the work.

Suicide

Explosion

Big city

It can be said that if Grosz had done only these works, he would have remained in the history of expressionism. But he was also a Dadaist.

Dadaism was brought to Germany from Zurich by Richard Huelsenbeck in 1917. Gross was one hundred percent ready for Dadaism. He is already accustomed to showing off to the authorities and the average person, and to trampling on everything that is sacred to them, too. He mastered shocking and independent positions perfectly. Let’s say a terrible anti-British hysteria begins in the country under the headline “God, punish England” - Gross demonstratively speaks English on every corner and signs his works with an English pseudonym - not Georg Gross, but George Grosz (George Gros)**. This is, in fact, how a true dandy, a drunkard, a walker in the female camp, born to the pop of champagne, should behave.

The Berlin Dada group, founded by Huelsenbeck and of which Gross was a member, produced the most politicized Dadaism. It was very fun Dadaism. “We mocked everything, nothing was sacred to us, we just didn’t give a damn about everything, and that was dada. Not mysticism, not communism, not anarchism. All these areas had their own programs. We were complete, absolute nihilists, our symbol was Nothing, a vacuum, a hole,” Gross later wrote about this.

Republic of Automata

The main form of communication between Dadaists and the population were events under the neutral names “meeting” or “Sunday matinee”. The public came - lovers of beauty, Dadaists, for starters, staged some kind of action labeled as art, like a competition between Gross and Walter Mehring - one at a typewriter, the other at a sewing machine. The competition consisted of alternately shouting completely absurd phrases like “Tyulitetyu, luttityu!” O, sole mio! Old man river, Mississippi" or "Eyapopeia! Tandaradei! Hip-hip Dada! Dada-capo.” The public, of course, actively did not like this, they began to be indignant, and the Dadaists entered into a discussion with them about art, where quite adequate arguments were thickly mixed with outright insults. Or the same Mehring began to read Goethe’s poems, and Gross came up to him in a monocle and shouted to the whole hall: “Stop it! Are you going to throw pearls in front of these pigs?”, after which the rest of the gang appeared on stage and shouted at the audience: “Get out of here!” Ladies and gentlemen, you are politely asked to get the hell out of here!” - and the Dadaists went on the attack on the enraged stalls, which at times escalated into a fight, which was stopped by the police. Oh, the times... The most amazing thing is that the public, even knowing what brutes and scum these Dadaists are, also paid for all this bullying of themselves - tickets were sold for the events. What about the performance?

It's a nasty day

Periodically, the Dadaists became serious and read out their political programs from the stage. There were these points:
- recognition by all clergy and teachers of the tenets of the Dadaist faith;
- the introduction of a simultaneous poem as a state Dadaist prayer;
- reading bruitish, simultaneous and dadaistic poems in churches;
- urgently carrying out large-scale Dadaist propaganda in 150 circuses in order to educate the proletariat;
- control over all laws and regulations by the Central Dada Council of the World Revolution;
- immediate regulation of sexual intercourse in the Dadaist spirit by creating a Dadaist sexual center.

German winter tale

The Dadaists proclaimed from the pulpit of the Berlin Cathedral the onset of the worldwide Dadaist revolution, displayed mountains of garbage, hung a stuffed army officer with a pig mug from the ceiling, scattered their leaflets at official government events, put up provocative stickers - they invented them. Some Dadaists - including Gross - became close to the communists and took part slightly in the communist putschs, which at the turn of 1910-1920. there were several in Germany. After one of them, Gross was even arrested. Well, a decent avant-garde artist should be leftist to one degree or another, this tradition still exists today. It’s not interesting to be right, right is too right and insipid. The verse, however.

Untitled

Gross even joined the Communist Party of Germany - he was so fed up with all this German militarism, imperialism, revanchism, nationalism, etc. However, having traveled to the USSR in 1922, met Lenin and Trotsky, and looked at everything that was happening here, he left the party. Still, he was rather an anarchist. In any case, Gross wanted freedom, and not just a change in the bosses of life. Thus ended his Dadaist period, and I boldly declare that if it were the only one in his career, then Gross would still remain in the grateful memory of posterity. But Gross also took part in the new materiality.

What new materiality is, I have already explained well in the text about Otto Dix and I will not repeat myself - everything that is written there about this subject applies to Gross without any reservations. Here are his works from this period:

Portrait of the writer Max Herrmann-Neisse

Portrait of boxer Max Schmeling

It must be said that Gross’s difficult Dadaist past sometimes popped up in the form of works like these:

Pillars of society

Again sharp political criticism, again details shocking to the untrained eye - do you see the big-faced pillar on the right with a bunch of crap instead of brains? Gross is again periodically fined for blasphemy.

“Keep your mouth shut and do your duty (from the album of illustrations for The Good Soldier Schweik)”

Or for pornography. This is a completely innocent job, he has very cool ones in this sense.

Untitled

Naturally, the matter cannot be completed without a political cartoon in which a new hero appears.

Hitler

Again, if from birth to death Gross had been exclusively a new materialist, he would still have been one of the three most important artists in Germany in the interwar period, along with Dix and Beckmann.

In January 1933, two weeks before this new hero came to power, Gross sailed to the USA - he was invited to teach painting for one semester. He returned home after 26 years. During this time, in his homeland he was awarded another honor - his works were presented at the exhibition “Degenerate Art”*** and were partially destroyed. Thus, he was fined under the Kaiser, under the Weimar Republic, and under Hitler he was simply burned. Isn't this a confession?

In America, not seeing an enemy in front of him, Gross tried to engage simply in art and simply making money.

High dunes

Flag Waving

Commercial pocket-book cover

True, it must be said that by that time he was very tired of politics. In fact, he fought imperialism in Germany - and found it in the country of the Soviets. He fought against capitalism - but this capitalism turned out to be paradise compared to what replaced it with Hitler. And he fled from this Hitler in the most capitalist country in the world. In short, everything turned out to be decay, both deception and Maya’s veil. Only occasionally does Gross do something in a more or less old spirit.

Cain, or Hitler in Hell

But the problem is that if all that remained of Gross was what he did in America, he would not have been included in any history of art. The real Gross is tough, shocking, extremely truthful and not trying to please art, made on the basis of dislike and hatred.

Meanwhile, official recognition came. In 1954, Gross was elected to the American Academy of Letters and Arts, and in 1958 to the German Academy of Arts. In 1959 he returned to Berlin (west). About a month later, he got drunk at a meeting with old friends. Returned home at night. He opened the wrong door - next to it was the door to the basement - and rolled down the steps, breaking all over. In the morning he was still alive, they took him to the hospital, but they could not save him.

* He was also tested for mental sanity.
** Perhaps there is also a language game involved here. Gross in German is big, Grosz in German and English is a penny, i.e. something small.
*** There were several categories of degeneracy. Gross was classified as one of the fourth - "The portrayal of German soldiers as idiots, sexual degenerates and drunkards."

Georg Ehrenfried Gross or Georges Gross (German: Georg Ehrenfried Groß, German: George Grosz, July 26, 1893, Berlin - July 6, 1959, ibid.) - German painter, graphic artist and caricaturist. In Germany, the artist was a prominent figure in the avant-garde. In 1917-1920 he took an active part in the life of the Berlin Dadaists. From the age of 15 he drew cartoons. In 1909 he entered the Royal Academy of Arts in Dresden; later he studied at the Berlin School of Art and Industry and in Paris. Having begun to paint professionally, Gros settled in Berlin and lived there until 1932, then emigrated to the USA, and in 1938 took American citizenship.

In response to a request to write an autobiography for the collection “Young Art,” Georg Gross sent

John the sex murderer

Dadaism (especially in Germany) was a movement in painting, literature, and theater that expressed disagreement. dissatisfaction, sought to shock, surprise, challenge and... tell the truth about a world that seemed to have gone crazy.

“In those days (after World War I) we were all Dadaists. If the word DADA meant anything at all, it meant seething with discontent, dissatisfaction and cynicism. Defeat and political ferment always give rise to movements of this kind.”

(G. Gross)

Returning from the First World War, Gross painted what he saw in Berlin - cabarets, speculators, beggars, prostitutes, bankers, Prussian military, aristocrats, drug addicts, disabled people, police officers, burghers.

Gross is a virtuoso draftsman who loves bold, meaningful contrasting compositional juxtapositions and unusual angles. But all this - shifts in plans, expressive detail, sharpness of line - is subordinated to revealing the satirical essence of the phenomenon. These are techniques of grotesque, hyperbolization, without which satire cannot exist.

The preface to the collection of drawings by Georg Grosz, published in the USSR in 1931, stated:

“Gross’s strength lies in the fact that he is able to give with extraordinary acuteness a general expression of the class antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
...His attention is absorbed exclusively by a negative task, the task of exposing the bourgeoisie...denying capitalism, he at the same time does not see a concrete way out for the working people and does not show in his drawings the force that is called upon to destroy the capitalist system.”

People's Commissar of Education of the USSR A.V. Lunacharsky said about Georg Gross:

“... A brilliant, original draftsman, an evil and insightful caricaturist of bourgeois society and a convinced communist... This is truly amazing in terms of the power of talent and the power of malice. The only thing I can blame Gross for is that sometimes his drawings are extremely cynical...”

He was constantly accused of “pornography”, “insulting public morality”, “anti-patriotism”.

Everyone recognized Gross's skill as an artist. But his works - both drawings and paintings - are tough, merciless, angry, exciting, provoking...
Most of them can't be hung in a living room or bedroom, and they're not for offices or boardrooms.
They are not a piece of decoration. And this is their strength.

Later, the characters in his drawings included the Blackshirts and, of course, their leader, Adolf Hitler.

The Nazis confiscated drawings by Georg Gross from museums and galleries, and burned albums with his works in public squares.

Largely inspired by the news from Russia, which had made a revolution, as well as the revolutionary events in his homeland, Georg Gross joined the November Group, created in 1918, and a little later the Communist Party of Germany.
During the Spartacist uprising in Berlin, Gross was arrested, but thanks to forged documents he managed to be free.

In 1919, together with Wieland Herzfelde (MALIK publishing house), he began publishing the magazine “Pliate”. Gross's drawings are published in many editions of brochures from the "Little Revolutionary Library" series, published by the MALIK publishing house.

In 1921, Gross released the album “God is With Us” and was fined 300 marks for drawings that “insulted the honor of the German army.” This story - "DADA before the court" is described in detail by Raoul Hausmann.

In 1922, together with the writer Martin Andersen, Nexe made a five-month trip to the USSR, during which he met with V. Lenin and L. Trotsky.
However, what he saw does not inspire Grosh to glorify Soviet Russia; rather, it pushes him to leave the Communist Party, which is what happens in 1923.
Georg Gross's critical statements about V.I. Lenin were one of the reasons that some publications with his quotes ended up in a special storage facility in the USSR.

He does not become a “petrel of the revolution”, but begins his own revolutionary struggle against society, culture and the art of exploitation and totalitarianism.

Grosz's work from the 1920s can be characterized as political and social satire. Art critics define them both as satirical avant-gardeism and social expressionism. Some of his works (especially his early ones) are considered classics of Dadaism. Some later consider it the forerunner of such a movement as pop art.
But no one doubts that Georg Grosz entered the history of painting as an outstanding political artist.

And he made this choice quite consciously.

Gross himself later wrote in his autobiography “A Little YES and a Big NO”:

“Anthems of hatred began to sound everywhere. They hated everyone: Jews, capitalists, Prussian Junkers, communists, the army, property owners, workers, the unemployed, the black Reichswehr, control commissions, politicians, department stores, and again Jews. It was an orgy of incitement, and the republic itself was a weak thing, barely noticeable. It was a world full of negativity, denial, crowned with colorful tinsel and sparkles, a world that many represented as the true, happy Germany, while a new barbarism was beginning."

“Cain, or, Hitler in Hell” (1944)Cain, or, Hitler in Hell.

When the Nazis seized power in Germany, they banned the work of progressive artists they disliked. Among the first to be named on this black list was the name of the greatest satirist artist, Georg Grosz. Old magazines with his drawings were burned at the stake; paintings could not be shown in museum halls.

George Grosz, The Survivor, 1944.

The Nazis called him a Bolshevik henchman. One of the German newspapers wrote: “Among Germans who have a healthy, natural way of thinking - both experts and laymen - the artistic talents of Mr. Gross are the least respected. Grosz is a skilled political agitator who uses his pencil rather than words for propaganda. He is not on the side of German artists, but with the Bolsheviks, or rather political nihilists.”

god of War

Self-portrait.

George Grosz, The Wanderer, 1934.

But soon the First World War began, and the free artist Gross was drafted into the Kaiser's army. Here, having come face to face with a terrible reality, seeing every day how people give their lives so that those in power can put extra profits in their pockets, soldier Gross openly opposes militarism and the continuation of the war.

Retreat (Rückzug),

Georg Gross was not an active supporter of the ideas of communism, although he collaborated with leftist and communist publications.
Georg Gross was not an underground hero who fought Nazism.

Pillars of society. Georges Grosse (1926)

His main enemy was the totalitarianism that reigned in Germany, the support of which was made up not only of thousands of Gestapo men, but also tens of thousands of Germans who wrote denunciations to the Gestapo against their neighbors and relatives, who were afraid of denunciations from their neighbors and relatives, but were pleased that in Hitler’s Germany they finally “order has been restored”, cheese is sold and trains run on schedule.

The Painter of the Hole I,

he Painter of the Hole II,

George Grosz, Portrait of Dr. Felix J. Weil

Porträt des Schriftstellers Max Herrmann-Neiße,

Strasse in Berlin (1922-1923 - George Grosz)

The 20s marked the highest peak in Gross’s work. Gross loved to make large series of drawings, as if giving them an encyclopedia of the morals of modern Germany, mercilessly revealing the glaring contradictions of society, showing its militant anti-humanistic character. The release of each of them was an event of public importance, like a bomb exploding. The series of monographs “God is with us” (1920), which exposed the evil stupidity of the German military, was subjected to a fine of 5 thousand marks by the Reichswehr. A similar fate befell the magnificent cycle “Ecce Homo” (1923).

Gross is a virtuoso draftsman who loves bold, meaningful contrasting compositional juxtapositions and unusual angles. But all this - shifts in plans, expressive detail, sharpness of line - is subordinated to revealing the satirical essence of the phenomenon. These are techniques of grotesque, hyperbolization, without which satire cannot exist. The artist himself said that “drawing must once again submit to a social purpose,” to become “a weapon against the brutal Middle Ages and the human stupidity of our time...” And it must be said that he did this with true brilliance. Thus, the drawing “Drill” from the series “Marked” (1923) so evilly shows the soullessness and idiocy of the life of the German army that it leaves no hope for the aura of romance that surrounded it in official propaganda. In Gross's depiction, we are presented with people-mechanisms, moving and, most importantly, thinking only on command. This is not some kind of teaching, but a drill, something inhuman.

In the early 30s, when the fascists were already openly preparing to seize power, Gross left for the United States of America. In addition to Georg Gross, D. Hartfield, B. Brecht, L. Feuchtwanger, E. Piscator, M. Dietrich, G. Eisler, T. Mann and many, many others emigrated from Nazi Germany. In 1938 Gross was deprived of German citizenship.

In America, Gross taught and opened a private art school. In 1937, he received financial support from the Guggenheim Foundation, which allowed him to devote more time to his own work. He was not rich, but he lived quite comfortably. Exhibitions of his works (especially in the post-war years) enjoyed success and recognition from critics and spectators.

In 1946, Gross’s autobiography “A Little YES and a Big NO” was published in the USA.

In 1954, Gross was elected to the American Academy of Literature and the Arts, and in 1958 to the German Academy of Arts.
His last works in America were collages that recalled his Dada period and are considered a harbinger of the art movement known as Pop Art.
In 1959, Gross returned to Berlin and a month after his return, on July 5, he died in his home.

Suicide

George Grosz. Self-Portrait, Warning.

Grosz High Dunes, 1940.

In Germany, the artist was a prominent figure in the avant-garde. In 1917-1920 he took an active part in the life of the Berlin Dadaists. The Portrait of D. Heartfield is typical of his work of this period, where there is a certain distortion of forms and collage is used. In the late 1920s, Grosz joined a movement called "new materiality" or "verism". Portrait of Dr. Neisse (1927) is a typical example of the use of emphatically realistic details for expressionistic purposes, in a manner cultivated by the verists.

Grosz's works, created before his departure to America, can be characterized as sharp denunciations of political and social evil, open and direct, excluding any humor. During the years of fascism, his works were removed from museums. Upon arrival in the United States, changes occurred in the style and general direction of the artist’s work. He still had excellent professional skills, but in his later works one can feel an increasing interest in purely pictorial and technical problems. His accusatory pathos was replaced by a manifestation of a humanistic philosophical worldview.

In 1954 Grosz was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. For 20 years he taught at the New York Art Students League. Grosz died in Berlin on July 6, 1959. Grosz published an autobiographical book “A Little Yes and a Big No” (1946). In the 1950s, he opened a private art school at his home, and in 1954 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1959 the artist returned to Berlin. He was found dead on his doorstep after a stormy night.

A Married Couple 1930 by George Grosz 1893-1959

The best years of their lives, 1923, Gross Georg (1893-1859), watercolor, Kunstmuseum Hannover

"Cain, or Hitler in Hell" (1944). George Grosz painting Cain or Hitler in Hell, New York, 1944.

Grosz's drawings and caricatures of the 1920s, which bring his work closer to expressionism, aptly recreate the situation in Germany on the eve of Hitler's rise to power, its growing absurdity and hopelessness. Gross owns a series of drawings “Cain, or Hitler in Hell” (1944). An erotic theme occupies a significant place in his graphics, which he interprets in his usual sharply grotesque spirit.

Arnold Newman, George Grosz, 1942

From the comments:

".....besides the fact that he is a brilliant draftsman, whose hand is steady, his mind is clear and deep, no matter how much he drinks, Grosz's male portraits are unbearably, indescribably good. And the portraits of Max Hermann-Neisse are perhaps the best of everything I've seen lately. The lack of pathos both in Max himself and in the portrait, and the composition of the portrait in which Max with a ring on his hand is such that I have no strength to take my eyes off. I leaf through the post and return to it, leaf through and come back again.. "What thin wrists, large, working hands, gnarled fingers, how calmly and powerlessly Max's hands lie on the armrests of a well-worn chair. Hands say: everything has already happened, everything has happened, nothing can be changed, you can only think about it.. How painful Max has a face, looking into himself, how tragic this little man is, he is full of heavy thoughts and therefore the thought immediately pierces him: did he survive the thirties? No, I think he did not...
Grosz is a very masculine artist, his world is filled with men of all kinds, they are represented in the most complete way and in a social context, but this is not the main thing, Grosz’s world is what these German men did to the century, Grosz, to all of us born in this century , this is what I had to answer for. And the God of War rises above the sarcastic den! Here is the main figure, a relative of Goy's capriccios, terrifying fantasies and devilish reality. Perhaps no one since Goya has depicted this mythical figure so realistically, recognizable in all its abomination. What do we know about the First World War? In Russia, this epic is rarely remembered; no dates are celebrated. Indirectly, through the memories of his heroes, Remarque told us about it, poignantly, and thank you for that. I need to say thank you to Gross too, he deserves it like no one else wow." (ily_domenech)