George Grosz

(German, 1893–1959)

George Grosz was a German artist and member of the New Objectivity movement. The artist’s paintings, drawings, and prints critiqued the politics and society of his day with incisive humor. “I was arrogant enough to call myself a natural scientist, not a painter, nor, heaven forbid, a satirist,” he once reflected. “But in reality I myself was everybody I drew, the rich man favored by fate, stuffing himself and guzzling champagne, as much as the one who stood outside in the pouring rain holding out his hand.” His best-known artworks were depictions of the dark side of German metropolitan life at the time. Born Georg Ehrenfried Groß on July 26, 1893 in Berlin, Germany, Grosz studied at the Dresden Academy of Art where he honed his drawing skills. Moving back to Berlin in 1911, the artist changed his name in protest of the rampant German nationalism he perceived around him. Alongside his peers Otto Dix and Max Beckmann, Grosz began commenting on injustices and grotesque aspects of Berlin with works such as Explosion (1917) and The Pillars of Society (1926). Emigrating to the United States in 1933, he barely escaped Germany before Hitler became Chancellor. Seeing the devastation of both World War I and II disheartened the artist, and his work shifted towards a softer style through the following decades. He died shortly after returning to Berlin, Germany on July 6, 1959 at the age of 65. Today, his works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, among others.