German Expressionist Painter - George Grosz

As did many of the German artists of the time George Grosz fought in the trenches of WWI, having volunteered for military service. In 1915 he was discharged on medical grounds however he was drafted in the January of 1917 due to the shortage of soldiers, where he did not fight but guarded and transported prisoners of war, but by the May he was given permanent discharge as he was unfit for duty after a suicide attempt forced them to diagnose shell shock. Having faced his own disillusionment about the nature of war he turned his attention the bourgeoisies of 1920s Germany and painted a series of mocking caricatures of them and those who were in support of war.

He provided illustrations for German left-wing publications through his involvement with the German Dada group, and became a member of the KPD, the German communist party in 1919. He was arrested during the Spartacist uprising which marked the end of the German revolution, but he escaped using fake identification papers. In 1921 he was accused of insulting the army and was fined 300 German marks and had his work Gott Mit uns, God With Us - a satire condemning German Society - destroyed.

After spending five months in Russia meeting with people like Trotsky and Lenin he left the KPD, unwilling to live under any sort of dictator and as such his politics were strongly ant-Nazi. He was invited by the Art Studies League of New York to teach there in 1933, just at the time when the Nazis came to power. He received word that they had been to his apartment and his studio looking for him and so he stayed in America, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1938. During this time his work become more romantic and to many this signaled a decline.

He continued to teach, forming a private art school in his own home during the 1950s and he worked as an artist in residence. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1954. He returned to Berlin where he died after a fall down some stairs in 1959.

Works: Suicide 1916

Fit For Active Service 1918

Grey Day 1921

The Face of the Ruling Class 1921

The Eclipse of the Sun 1928

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