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George Grosz

"The disaster was in progress... As for me, I drew incessantly."

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Notes of biography

Georg Gross, who in 1916 becomes George Grosz is born in 1893 in Berlin (Germany). He spends his childhood in Pomerania. He studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden from 1909 to 1911, then at the School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin from 1912 to 1916. In the early 10, George Grosz publishes caricatures in newspapers and magazines.
In 1913, he travels to Paris where he meets the painter Jules Pascin. He volunteers in the army in 1914; is reformed in 1915 for injuries, he is mobilized again in 1917 and reformed permanently the following year due to a depression. From 1915, Grosz translates his experience of war in violent expressionist drawings where he shows the horror and cruelty of the conflict. He is fiercely German anti-nationalist. He speaks English by provocation and caricatures the German people, citizens, soldiers, and clergymen, bringing a violent attack against the established order.
George Grosz participates in the formation of the Berlin Dada group in 1918 and joins the Communist Party the same year. He collaborates with the magazine "Der Dada". The artist expresses himself through realistic or satirical drawing, painting, watercolor painting; he realizes Photo collages, photomontages. In 1920, his first exhibition is presented, year he also exhibits at the First International Dada Fair in Berlin, an event which is a co-founder (with John Heartfield and Raoul Hausmann); we notice the presence of works by Max Ernst and Otto Dix. Grosz becomes president of the "Rote Gruppe" (Red Group), an association of Communists artists.
In the 20s, George Grosz is one of the main representatives of the movement of the New Objectivity, a period in which he paints realistic portraits. The artist is repeatedly convicted for publishing obscene images and profanity.
Invited to teach at the Art Students League of New York, George Grosz emigrates to the United States in 1933 (just days before Hitler comes to power) and acquires U.S. citizenship in 1938. He draws mostly landscapes that reflect a new "inner peace". In 1937, some of his works participate in the exhibition "Degenerate Art" organized in Berlin by the Nazi regime; his works are removed from all German museums.
In 1941 and 1942, the artist is a professor at Columbia University.
George Grosz returns to live in Germany (West Berlin) in June 1959, where he dies in an accident a month later. Grosz has forcefully shown the folly of the human race.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Grosz, his life and work » Schneede & autres auteurs Ed Universe Books NY 1979
  • « Georg Grosz, a biography », G. Flavell, M. Kay, Yale University Press, 1988
  • « Georg Grosz », Ivo Kranzfelder, Ed. Taschen, 1994
  • « G. Grosz, les années berlinoises », Cat. d’exposition, Musée de la Seita, 1995
  • « George Grosz, l'œil de l'artiste », Ralph Jentsch, Ed. Adam Biro, 2002
  • « L'ABCdaire de Dada », Aurélie Verdier, Ed. Flammarion, Paris, 2005 
  • «  Dada », collectif, cat. d'expo., Ed. Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 2005
  • « George Grosz », Günther Anders, Ed. Allia, 2005
  • «  G. Grosz : Berlin-New York », Ralph Jentsch, Ed. Skira, 2007
  • « George Grosz », Ralph Jentsch, Ed. de l'Amateur, 2014
To read from the artist :
  • « Un petit oui, un grand non », Ed. Jacqueline Chambon, Nîmes, 1990
  • « L'art est en danger », Malik Verlag, Berlin, 1925, Ed. Allia, 2012
Website :
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/gro

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Art movements

+ EXPRESSIONISM / 1900-1932 / Cuno Amiet, Auguste Chabaud, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Mueller, Emil Nolde, Egon Schiele, Chaïm Soutine, etc.
All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover