George Grosz was a German artist known for his anti-war caricature drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s and was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity groups during the Weimar Republic. Grosz was persecuted for insulting the German government and was censored and fined for blasphemy and sacrilege. Relentless in his criticism of the Nazis and their burgeoning authoritarian dictatorship, Grosz narrowly escaped Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 by emigrating to the United States.
Born in Berlin, George Grosz grew up in poor surroundings where the tales of author James Fenimore Cooper inspired dreams about America. As a child Grosz would copy various cartoons and create his own scenes for pleasure. In 1909, Grosz studied at the Royal Saxon Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden and then attended Prussia’s Academy of Arts and Crafts on a scholarship. He was influenced by graphic artists including William Hogarth and Honoré Daumier and by popular art forms including graffiti. In 1910, Grosz’s first caricature appeared in "Ulk," where he was then published regularly, as well as in "Lustige Blätter" and other German magazines. A few years later, Grosz studied in Paris at the Atelier Colarossi where he first learned about cubism and futurism, which had a significant impact on his mature artistic style.
As a believer in World War I, Grosz, like many, thought it would be “the war to end all wars.” The American literature Grosz read as a child continued to inspire him and create optimism about the state of world affairs. However, after serving in the army, Grosz became allied with the Communist party and drew many satirical cartoons that coincided with the Dada movement of the time. With pen and ink drawings of a collapsing and corrupt society featuring degenerate churchmen, prostitutes, drunks and murderers, Grosz devastatingly portrayed the Weimar period in Germany. After only a few years of service as a German infantryman, Grosz was court martialed for insubordination and pardoned from the death penalty.
By 1918, Grosz had settled in Berlin where he co-founded the local Dada movement, and the art dealer Hans Goltz presented his first one-man show. The following year, Grosz co-founded the magazines "Die Pleite" ("The Bankruptcy"), "Jedermann sein eigener Futball" ("Everyone has their own Football") and "Der Blutige Ernst" ("In Deadly Ernest"). Throughout the 1920’s Grosz had many shows around Germany and traveled to Russia, Paris, Marseilles and Switzerland. In 1931, Grosz was given his first solo exhibition in New York at the Weyhe Gallery.
Leaving Germany just days before the Nazi occupation, Grosz settled in Bayside, New York, and opened a private art school with fellow artist Maurice Sterne. He began teaching at the Art Students League where he returned regularly from 1932-1955. With a different lifestyle in America and filled with hope for the future, Grosz’s style changed dramatically, losing some of the ironic features of his earlier work. In America, George Grosz garnered critical acclaim and he was awarded prizes from the Art Institute of Chicago (1931, 1940) and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1940); and received a Guggenheim Award for two consecutive years (1937, 1938). When works by Grosz were included in the infamous "Degenerate Art Exhibition" in Munich in 1937, some of his works were burned in Germany. Soon thereafter, he lost his German nationality and became a US citizen.
With World War II on the brink, Grosz’s anger and resentment towards his native country resurfaced and found expression in striking drawings that portrayed the anguish of human existence. During this time, Grosz painted many scenes of his surroundings in New York City that reflected social realist subjects and themes, with the same biting satire. Grosz returned to his travels in Europe after the wars and designed costumes in 1954 for Berliner Komödie’s "Bilderbogen aus Amerika" ("Pictures from America"). He was elected a member of the National Academy of Design in 1950, Berlin’s Akademie der Künste in 1958 and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1959. In June that same year, George Grosz returned to Berlin for the last time where he passed away on July 6th.
Works by George Grosz are represented in public institutions that include The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown (OH), the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Dallas Museum of Art (TX), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, and Neue Galerie in New York and the Tate Gallery in London (UK).