George Grosz (July 26, 1893 – July 6, 1959) was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group during the Weimar Republic before he emigrated to the United States in 1933.
Grosz, a dandy who wanted to be an illustrator and a caricaturist, joined the communist party and the Dadaist movement and produced anti-establishment papers and pamphlets. He signed a manifesto calling for ‘immediate regulation of all sexual relations in an international dadaist spirit by the establishment of a Dadaist sex head quarters’ and protested against the anti-obscenity and anti-pornography law in 1926. He was involved in several trials and accused of abusing public morals, not so much because of the sexual explicitness of his work but rather for insulting the army and blasphemy.
His water colors show frank and honest sexuality, meaty voluptuous women and men full of lust. One may think of them as ugly people as the German judge did at that time. He was no doubt used to esthetical idealizations. Others read these works as social criticism. Certainly exaggeration and satire are part of them. But that makes them real as well.
As Grosz said: ‘I see things as I see them, that’s all.’ via
pics via femina - George Grosz
