Grosz gems from the roaring twenties
With a sharp drawing pen George Grosz (1893–1959) commented on the conditions of the Weimar Republic. His visual satires are classics of New Objectivity which have retained their socio-critical bite until today – and characterise our view of the interwar years.
His attacks on the petit bourgeoisie, politics, the military and the church regularly earned Grosz charges of defamation, blasphemy and »insulting public morals«. But the professed Dadaist, communist and pacifist was not to be diverted, as dissent was his artistic programme: he entitled his memoirs A Little Yes and a Big No.
Passers-by (from: Ecce Homo), 1921
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
© Estate of George Grosz, Princeton, N. J., VG Bild-
Kunst, Bonn; photo: H. Kolberg
With works held in the Düsseldorf Museum Kunstpalast and an important private collection, Great Pastimes presents Grosz gems from the 1910s and 20s. Around ninety watercolours, drawings and lithographs from the time before Grosz’s emigration in 1933, including powerful images from the portfolios God with Us and Ecce Homo, provide a comprehensive insight into Grosz’s figural cosmos. His visual reportage from the urban jungle, political swamps and private depths form a dazzling panorama. Do come in!
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue (192 pages with 335 colour illustrations, German, hardcover, Wienand Verlag Cologne).
In Cooperation with Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
