Revolutionary artist Georg Gross. George Grosz - biography

Artist Georg Gross is a painter, caricaturist and graphic artist of German origin. One of the main directions of his work was social, and his works, created in the early stages, are defined by art historians as classics of Dadaism. Subsequently, Gross's work gravitated toward satirical avant-gardeism. He remained in the history of painting as an outstanding political artist. This article will examine the main milestones in the biography of the artist Georg Gross, including his creative one.

early years

Georg Gross, whose photo is given in the article, was born in Berlin in 1893. His father died when the child was seven years old. The mother was a seamstress with low earnings, and the family had to move to Pomerania in search of a better life. There, his mother worked in an officer's casino, and Georg attended school. And at the age of 15, when the young man slapped the teacher in the face, he left classes.

In 1909, Georg began his studies in Dresden at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1910, he collaborated with several satirical magazines.

In 1912-13 The aspiring painter spent 7 months in Paris, where he studied at a private art school founded by the Italian sculptor Colarossi. After this, he continued his education in Berlin, at an art and industrial school.

Volunteer

After returning to Germany, the artist published his cartoons in magazines, made illustrations for books and began painting in oils. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Georg volunteered for the German army. Due to inflammation of the auricle, he was discharged in 1915.

In 1917, he was again called up for military service. After he got into a confrontation with one of the officers, he was arrested for “insult by assault” and placed in a mental hospital. In May 1917, Georg was finally discharged. In the same year, his first two albums were published.

The artist attracted the attention of famous publicists and critics. The main subject of his drawings was Berlin life of that time with its whirlpool of entertainment, vices and immorality.

First post-war years

In 1918, Georg Gross was one of those who founded the Dada group in Berlin. This direction in art arose as a reaction to post-war reality. According to the Dadaists, the cruelty of war exposed the meaninglessness of existence. Therefore, their main idea was the systematic destruction of any aesthetics.

The main principles of Dadaism are irrationality, denial of any canons in art, cynicism, lack of system and disappointment. Many of these principles are reflected in Gross's work.

In 1918, inspired by the revolutionary events in Germany, as well as the news of the accomplished revolution in Russia, he joined the November Group, and a little later the German Communist Party. In 1919, he took part in the Spartacist uprising and was arrested. But he managed to avoid prison by resorting to using false documents.

Together with his friends, Gross publishes the magazine “Plyate” (“Bankruptcy”), and his drawings are also published in brochures belonging to the “Little Revolutionary Library” series.

1920s

In 1920, Georg Gross married Eva Peter, his former classmate. He continued to draw for satirical magazines, in 1921 he illustrated “The Adventures of Tartarin of Tarascon,” a novel, and then released an album of drawings entitled “God With Us.” They are perceived as “insulting the honor of the German army.” Gross was fined 300 marks, and the drawings were destroyed by court order.

In 1922, the artist made a trip to the USSR, which lasted five months. He meets with Lenin and Trotsky. After this, he reconsiders his views, and a turning point occurs in the biography of Georg Gross - he leaves the Communist Party. A number of critical statements about Lenin lead to the fact that some of the publications containing his quotes end up in special storage in the USSR.

Further creativity

But the artist’s creative protest against injustice in society did not end there. In 1923 he became chairman of the Red Group. This is an association of proletarian artists that formed around a satirical magazine called “Dubinka”. The “Red Group” initiated and organized an exhibition of new German art in the USSR.

In 1924, 1925 and 1927. the artist lives in Paris again. In 1924, his album “This is a Man” was released. In the bourgeois press it was labeled as “pornographic hack.” Gross appears in court again on charges of “insulting public morals” and is fined 6,000 Reichsmarks.

In the same year, G. Gross became chairman of the Red Group artists association. And in 1926 - the “Club 1926” - a society of politics, science and art. Until 1927, he regularly illustrated publications in the communist press. In 1928, Gross joined the Association of German Revolutionary Artists.

Some of the drawings included in the album “Bases” provoked accusations from Georg Gross of insulting the church and blasphemy. In particular, this concerns the image of the crucifixion with Jesus Christ in army boots and a gas mask.

Emigration

In 1932, Gross emigrated to the United States with his wife and two sons. The departure was accelerated by a search carried out in his apartment by Nazi stormtroopers. From 1933 to 1955, the artist was a teacher in New York. In 1938, he lost his German citizenship and received American citizenship.

His work was declared “degenerate art” in Nazi Germany. In 1946, his autobiographical book “A Little Yes and a Big No” was published. In the 1950s, Gross opened a private art school. In 1954 he was elected to the US Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1959, Georg Gross returns to West Berlin, and soon, in the early morning, he is found dead on the threshold of his house.

Georg Ehrenfried Gross or Georges Gross (German: Georg Ehrenfried Groß, German: George Grosz, July 26, 1893, Berlin - July 6, 1959, ibid.) - German painter, graphic artist and caricaturist. In Germany, the artist was a prominent figure in the avant-garde. In 1917-1920 he took an active part in the life of the Berlin Dadaists. From the age of 15 he drew cartoons. In 1909 he entered the Royal Academy of Arts in Dresden; later he studied at the Berlin School of Art and Industry and in Paris. Having begun to paint professionally, Gros settled in Berlin and lived there until 1932, then emigrated to the USA, and in 1938 took American citizenship.

In response to a request to write an autobiography for the collection “Young Art,” Georg Gross sent

John the sex murderer

Dadaism (especially in Germany) was a movement in painting, literature, and theater that expressed disagreement. dissatisfaction, sought to shock, surprise, challenge and... tell the truth about a world that seemed to have gone crazy.

“In those days (after World War I) we were all Dadaists. If the word DADA meant anything at all, it meant seething with discontent, dissatisfaction and cynicism. Defeat and political ferment always give rise to movements of this kind.”

(G. Gross)

The preface to the collection of drawings by Georg Grosz, published in the USSR in 1931, stated:

“Gross’s strength lies in the fact that he is able to give with extraordinary acuteness a general expression of the class antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
...His attention is absorbed exclusively by a negative task, the task of exposing the bourgeoisie...denying capitalism, he at the same time does not see a concrete way out for the working people and does not show in his drawings the force that is called upon to destroy the capitalist system.”

People's Commissar of Education of the USSR A.V. Lunacharsky said about Georg Gross:

“... A brilliant, original draftsman, an evil and insightful caricaturist of bourgeois society and a convinced communist... This is truly amazing in terms of the power of talent and the power of malice. The only thing I can blame Gross for is that sometimes his drawings are extremely cynical...”

He was constantly accused of “pornography”, “insulting public morality”, “anti-patriotism”.

Everyone recognized Gross's skill as an artist. But his works - both drawings and paintings - are tough, merciless, angry, exciting, provoking...
Most of them can't be hung in a living room or bedroom, and they're not for offices or boardrooms.
They are not a piece of decoration. And this is their strength.

Later, the characters in his drawings included the Blackshirts and, of course, their leader, Adolf Hitler.

The Nazis confiscated drawings by Georg Gross from museums and galleries, and burned albums with his works in public squares.

Largely inspired by the news from Russia, which had made a revolution, as well as the revolutionary events in his homeland, Georg Gross joined the November Group, created in 1918, and a little later the Communist Party of Germany.
During the Spartacist uprising in Berlin, Gross was arrested, but thanks to forged documents he managed to be free.

In 1919, together with Wieland Herzfelde (MALIK publishing house), he began publishing the magazine “Pliate”. Gross's drawings are published in many editions of brochures from the "Little Revolutionary Library" series, published by the MALIK publishing house.

In 1921, Gross released the album “God is With Us” and was fined 300 marks for drawings that “insulted the honor of the German army.” This story - "DADA before the court" is described in detail by Raoul Hausmann.

In 1922, together with the writer Martin Andersen, Nexe made a five-month trip to the USSR, during which he met with V. Lenin and L. Trotsky.
However, what he saw does not inspire Grosh to glorify Soviet Russia; rather, it pushes him to leave the Communist Party, which is what happens in 1923.
Georg Gross's critical statements about V.I. Lenin were one of the reasons that some publications with his quotes ended up in a special storage facility in the USSR.

He does not become a “petrel of the revolution”, but begins his own revolutionary struggle against society, culture and the art of exploitation and totalitarianism.

Grosz's work from the 1920s can be characterized as political and social satire. Art critics define them both as satirical avant-gardeism and social expressionism. Some of his works (especially his early ones) are considered classics of Dadaism. Some later consider it the forerunner of such a movement as pop art.
But no one doubts that Georg Grosz entered the history of painting as an outstanding political artist.

And he made this choice quite consciously.

Gross himself later wrote in his autobiography “A Little YES and a Big NO”:

“Anthems of hatred began to sound everywhere. They hated everyone: Jews, capitalists, Prussian Junkers, communists, the army, property owners, workers, the unemployed, the black Reichswehr, control commissions, politicians, department stores, and again the Jews. It was an orgy of incitement, and the republic itself was a weak thing, barely noticeable. It was a world full of negativity, denial, crowned with colorful tinsel and sparkles, a world that many represented as the true, happy Germany, while a new barbarism was beginning."

"Cain, or Hitler in Hell" (1944)Cain, or, Hitler in Hell.

When the Nazis seized power in Germany, they banned the work of progressive artists they disliked. Among the first to be named on this black list was the name of the greatest satirist artist, Georg Grosz. Old magazines with his drawings were burned at the stake; paintings could not be shown in museum halls.

George Grosz, The Survivor, 1944.

The Nazis called him a Bolshevik henchman. One of the German newspapers wrote: “Among Germans who have a healthy, natural way of thinking - both experts and laymen - the artistic talents of Mr. Gross are the least respected. Grosz is a skilled political agitator who uses his pencil rather than words for propaganda. He is not on the side of German artists, but with the Bolsheviks, or rather political nihilists.”

god of War

Self-portrait.

George Grosz, The Wanderer, 1934.

But soon the First World War began, and the free artist Gross was drafted into the Kaiser's army. Here, having come face to face with a terrible reality, seeing every day how people give their lives so that those in power can put extra profits in their pockets, soldier Gross openly opposes militarism and the continuation of the war.

Retreat (Rückzug),

Georg Gross was not an active supporter of the ideas of communism, although he collaborated with leftist and communist publications.
Georg Gross was not an underground hero who fought Nazism.

Pillars of society. Georges Grosse (1926)

His main enemy was the totalitarianism that reigned in Germany, the support of which was made up not only of thousands of Gestapo men, but also tens of thousands of Germans who wrote denunciations to the Gestapo against their neighbors and relatives, who were afraid of denunciations from their neighbors and relatives, but were pleased that in Hitler’s Germany they finally “order has been restored”, cheese is sold and trains run on schedule.

The Painter of the Hole I,

he Painter of the Hole II,

George Grosz, Portrait of Dr. Felix J. Weil

Porträt des Schriftstellers Max Herrmann-Neiße,

Strasse in Berlin (1922-1923 - George Grosz)

The 20s marked the highest peak in Gross’s work. Gross loved to make large series of drawings, as if giving them an encyclopedia of the morals of modern Germany, mercilessly revealing the glaring contradictions of society, showing its militant anti-humanistic character. The release of each of them was an event of public importance, like a bomb exploding. The series of monographs “God is with us” (1920), which exposed the evil stupidity of the German military, was subjected to a fine of 5 thousand marks by the Reichswehr. A similar fate befell the magnificent cycle “Ecce Homo” (1923).

Gross is a virtuoso draftsman who loves bold, meaningful contrasting compositional juxtapositions and unusual angles. But all this - shifts in plans, expressive detail, sharpness of line - is subordinated to revealing the satirical essence of the phenomenon. These are techniques of grotesque, hyperbolization, without which satire cannot exist. The artist himself said that “drawing must once again submit to a social purpose,” to become “a weapon against the brutal Middle Ages and the human stupidity of our time...” And it must be said that he did this with true brilliance. Thus, the drawing “Drill” from the series “Marked” (1923) so evilly shows the soullessness and idiocy of the life of the German army that it leaves no hope for the aura of romance that surrounded it in official propaganda. In Gross's depiction, we are presented with people-mechanisms, moving and, most importantly, thinking only on command. This is not some kind of teaching, but a drill, something inhuman.

In the early 30s, when the fascists were already openly preparing to seize power, Gross left for the United States of America. In addition to Georg Gross, D. Hartfield, B. Brecht, L. Feuchtwanger, E. Piscator, M. Dietrich, G. Eisler, T. Mann and many, many others emigrated from Nazi Germany. In 1938 Gross was deprived of German citizenship.

In America, Gross taught and opened a private art school. In 1937, he received financial support from the Guggenheim Foundation, which allowed him to devote more time to his own work. He was not rich, but he lived quite comfortably. Exhibitions of his works (especially in the post-war years) enjoyed success and recognition from critics and spectators.

In 1946, Gross’s autobiography “A Little YES and a Big NO” was published in the USA.

In 1954, Gross was elected to the American Academy of Literature and the Arts, and in 1958 to the German Academy of Arts.
His last works in America were collages that recalled his Dada period and are considered a harbinger of the art movement known as Pop Art.
In 1959, Gross returned to Berlin and a month after his return, on July 5, he died in his home.

Suicide

George Grosz. Self-Portrait, Warning.

Grosz High Dunes, 1940.

In Germany, the artist was a prominent figure in the avant-garde. In 1917-1920 he took an active part in the life of the Berlin Dadaists. The Portrait of D. Heartfield is typical of his work of this period, where there is a certain distortion of forms and collage is used. In the late 1920s, Grosz joined a movement called "new materiality" or "verism". Portrait of Dr. Neisse (1927) is a typical example of the use of emphatically realistic details for expressionistic purposes, in a manner cultivated by the verists.

Grosz's works, created before his departure to America, can be characterized as sharp denunciations of political and social evil, open and direct, excluding any humor. During the years of fascism, his works were removed from museums. Upon arrival in the United States, changes occurred in the style and general direction of the artist’s work. He still had excellent professional skills, but in his later works one can feel an increasing interest in purely pictorial and technical problems. His accusatory pathos was replaced by a manifestation of a humanistic philosophical worldview.

In 1954 Grosz was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. For 20 years he taught at the New York Art Students League. Grosz died in Berlin on July 6, 1959. Grosz published an autobiographical book “A Little Yes and a Big No” (1946). In the 1950s, he opened a private art school at his home, and in 1954 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1959 the artist returned to Berlin. He was found dead on his doorstep after a stormy night.

A Married Couple 1930 by George Grosz 1893-1959

The best years of their lives, 1923, Gross Georg (1893-1859), watercolor, Kunstmuseum Hannover

"Cain, or Hitler in Hell" (1944). George Grosz painting Cain or Hitler in Hell, New York, 1944.

Grosz's drawings and caricatures of the 1920s, which bring his work closer to expressionism, aptly recreate the situation in Germany on the eve of Hitler's rise to power, its growing absurdity and hopelessness. Gross owns a series of drawings “Cain, or Hitler in Hell” (1944). An erotic theme occupies a significant place in his graphics, which he interprets in his usual sharply grotesque spirit.

Arnold Newman, George Grosz, 1942

From the comments:

".....besides the fact that he is a brilliant draftsman, whose hand is steady, his mind is clear and deep, no matter how much he drinks, Grosz's male portraits are unbearably, indescribably good. And the portraits of Max Hermann-Neisse are perhaps the best of everything I've seen lately. The lack of pathos in Max himself and in the portrait, and the composition of the portrait in which Max with a ring on his hand is such that I have no strength to take my eyes off. I scroll through the post and return to it, scroll through it and return again.. What thin wrists, large, working hands, knobby fingers, how calmly and powerlessly Max’s hands lie on the armrests of a well-worn chair. Hands say: everything has already happened, everything has happened, nothing can be changed, you can only think about it.. How painful. Max has a face, looking into himself, how tragic this little man is, he is full of heavy thoughts and therefore the thought immediately pierces him: did he survive the thirties? No, I don’t think he did...
Grosz is a very masculine artist, his world is filled with men of all kinds, they are represented in the most complete way and in a social context, but this is not the main thing, Grosz’s world is what these German men did to the century, Grosz, to all of us born in this century , this is what I had to answer for. And the God of War rises above the sarcastic den! Here is the main figure, a relative of Goy's capriccios, terrifying fantasies and devilish reality. Perhaps no one since Goya has depicted this mythical figure so realistically, recognizable in all its abomination. What do we know about the First World War? In Russia, this epic is rarely remembered; no dates are celebrated. Indirectly, through the memories of his heroes, Remarque told us about it, poignantly, and thank you for that. Thanks must also be said to Gross, he deserves it like no one else wow." (ily_domenech)

Georg Ehrenfried Groß or Georges Groß (German: Georg Ehrenfried Groß, German: George Grosz, July 26, 1893, Berlin - July 6, 1959, ibid.) - German painter, graphic artist and caricaturist.

In 1909-1911 studied fine arts at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (in the workshop of Richard Müller), in 1912-1916. continued his education at the Berlin School of Art and Industry (in the workshop of Emil Orlik). In 1912-1913 he was in Paris, got acquainted with the latest art, discovered the graphics of Daumier and Toulouse-Lautrec. In 1914 he enlisted in the German army as a volunteer, was hospitalized in 1915 and demobilized, released from military service in 1917.

Gross's drawings appeared in mid-1916 in the Berlin magazine New Youth. Soon the artist attracted attention. Several famous critics and publicists wrote about him, and publications of his drawings were published. Gross chose the life of Berlin with its immorality, whirlpool of entertainment and vices as the main subject of the image.

By inclinations and habits he was a dandy, an adventurer. In 1916, he changed his first and last name out of romantic love for America, which he knew from the novels of Fenimore Cooper (his friend and co-author Helmut Herzfeld took the pseudonym John Heartfield, under which he later became famous as a master of satirical photomontage). In 1918, Gross became one of the founders of the Berlin Dada group.

He took part in the Spartacist (Spartacist) uprising in 1919, was arrested, but avoided prison by using false documents. In the same year he joined the Communist Party of Germany, in 1922 he left its ranks, having previously visited Moscow. In 1923, he became chairman of the “Red Group”, an association of proletarian artists formed around the satirical magazine “Dubinka”, created by the German Communist Party. The "Red Group" initiated and organized the first exhibition of new German art in the Soviet Union.

He drew for the satirical magazine “Simplicissimus”, illustrated Alphonse Daudet’s novel “The Adventures of Tartarin from Tarascon” (1921), and acted as a set designer. In 1921, he was accused of insulting the German army, he was fined, and a series of his satirical drawings “God With Us” was destroyed by court verdict.

In 1924-1925 and 1927 he again lived in Paris, at which time his works were exhibited at the first exhibition of German art in Moscow. In 1928 he joined the Association of Revolutionary Artists of Germany. In 1932 he emigrated to the USA, from 1933-1955 he taught in New York, and in 1938 he received American citizenship. In Nazi Germany, his work was classified as “degenerate art.” Gross published an autobiographical book, “A Little Yes and a Big No” (1946). In the 1950s, he opened a private art school at his home, and in 1954 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1959, the artist returned to Germany, to West Berlin. A few weeks after his return, Grosz was found dead on his doorstep after a stormy night.

Gross's drawings and caricatures of the 1920s, which bring his work closer to expressionism, aptly recreate the situation in Germany on the eve of Hitler's rise to power, its growing absurdity and hopelessness. Gross owns a series of drawings “Cain, or Hitler in Hell” (1944). An erotic theme occupies a significant place in his graphics, which he treats in his usual harsh and grotesque spirit.

This is part of a Wikipedia article used under the CC-BY-SA license. Full text of the article here →

Georg Ehrenfried Gross or Georges Gros(German) Georg Ehrenfried Groß, German George Grosz, July 26, Berlin - July 6, ibid.) - German painter, graphic artist and caricaturist.

Biography

In 1909-1911 studied fine arts at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (in the workshop of Richard Müller), in 1912-1916. continued his education at the Berlin School of Art and Industry (in the workshop of Emil Orlik). In 1912-1913 he was in Paris, became acquainted with the latest art, and discovered the graphics of Daumier and Toulouse-Lautrec. In 1914 he enlisted in the German army as a volunteer, was hospitalized in 1915 and demobilized, released from military service in 1917.

Gross's drawings appeared in mid-1916 in the Berlin magazine New Youth. Soon the artist attracted attention - several famous critics and publicists wrote about him, and publications of his drawings were published. Gross chose the life of Berlin with all its immorality, whirlpool of entertainment and vices as the main subject of the image.

By inclinations and habits he was a dandy, an adventurer, a playmaker. In 1916, he changed his first and last name out of romantic love for America, which he knew from the novels of Fenimore Cooper. [[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]][[K:Wikipedia:Articles without sources (country: Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#property" was not found. )]] (his friend and co-author Helmut Herzfeld took the pseudonym John Heartfield, under which he later became famous as a master of satirical photomontage). In 1918, Gross became one of the founders of the Berlin Dada group.

Drew for a satirical magazine "Simplicissimus", illustrated the novel by Alphonse Daudet "The Adventures of Tartarin of Tarascon"(), acted as a set designer. In 1921, he was accused of insulting the German army, he was fined, a series of his satirical drawings "God is with us" was destroyed by court order.

Essays

George Grosz, Ach knallige Welt, du Lunapark, Gesammelte Gedichte, München, Wien, 1986.
Gross Georg. Thoughts and creativity. M.: Progress, 1975.- 139 p.

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Notes

Literature

Lewis B.I. George Grosz: art and politics in the Weimar Republic. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971
Fischer L. George Grosz in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1976.
Klassiker der Karikatur. George Grosz. Eulenspiegel. Verlag, Berlin.1979
Sabarsky S. George Grosz: the Berlin years. New York: Rizzoli, 1985
Flavell M.K. George Grosz, a biography. New Haven: Yale U.P., 1988
McCloskey B. George Grosz and the Communist Party: art and radicalism in crisis, 1918 to 1936. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1997.
Vargas Llosa M. Ein trauriger, rabiater Mann: über George Grosz. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp, 2000
George Grosz: Zeichnungen für Buch und Bühne. Berlin: Henschel, 2001
Anders G. George Grosz. Paris: Allia, 2005.
Reinhardt L. Georg Gross (1893-1959)// Art, No. 12, 1973. P.43-47.
Quirt Ulbrich. Georg Gros // Artists of the 20th century. Through the pages of the magazine "Creativity". - M., Soviet artist, 1974. - 66-71 p.

Excerpt characterizing Gross, Georg

- No! – I immediately snapped. “That’s not why I came here, you know, North.” I came for help. Only you can help me destroy Karaffa. After all, what he does is your fault. Help me!
The North became even more sad... I knew in advance what he would answer, but I did not intend to give up. Millions of good lives were put on the scale, and I could not so easily give up the fight for them.
– I already explained to you, Isidora...
- So explain it further! – I abruptly interrupted him. – Explain to me how you can sit quietly with your hands folded when human lives are extinguished one after another through your own fault?! Explain how such scum as Karaffa can exist, and no one has the desire to even try to destroy him?! Explain how you can live when this happens next to you?..
Bitter resentment bubbled up inside me, trying to spill out. I almost screamed, trying to reach his soul, but I felt that I was losing. There was no turning back. I didn't know if I would ever get there again, and I had to take every opportunity before I left.
- Look around, North! All over Europe your brothers and sisters are burning with living torches! Can you really sleep peacefully hearing their screams??? How can you not have bloody nightmares?!
His calm face was distorted by a grimace of pain:
– Don’t say that, Isidora! I have already explained to you - we should not interfere, we are not given such a right... We are guardians. We only protect KNOWLEDGE.
– Don’t you think that if you wait any longer, there will be no one to preserve your knowledge for?! – I exclaimed sadly.
– The earth is not ready, Isidora. I already told you this...
– Well, perhaps it will never be ready... And someday, in about a thousand years, when you look at it from your “tops”, you will see only an empty field, perhaps even overgrown with beautiful flowers, because that at this time there will be no more people on Earth, and there will be no one to pick these flowers... Think, North, is this the future you wished for the Earth?!..
But the North was protected by a blank wall of faith in what it said... Apparently, they all firmly believed that they were right. Or someone once instilled this faith in their souls so firmly that they carried it through centuries, without opening up and not allowing anyone into their hearts... And I couldn’t break through it, no matter how hard I tried.
– There are few of us, Isidora. And if we intervene, it is possible that we will also die... And then it will be as easy as shelling pears even for a weak person, not to mention someone like Caraffa, to take advantage of everything we keep. And someone will have power over all living things. This happened once before... A very long time ago. The world almost died then. Therefore, forgive me, but we will not interfere, Isidora, we have no right to do this... Our Great Ancestors bequeathed to us to protect ancient KNOWLEDGE. And that's what we're here for. What do we live for? We didn't even save Christ once... Although we could have. But we all loved him very much.
– Do you want to say that one of you knew Christ?!.. But that was so long ago!.. Even you cannot live that long!
“Why – a long time ago, Isidora?” Sever was sincerely surprised. “That was only a few hundred ago!” But we live much longer, you know. How could you live if you wanted...
– Several hundred?!!! – North nodded. – But what about the legend?!.. After all, according to it, already one and a half thousand years have passed since his death?!..
- That’s why she is a “legend”... - Sever shrugged, - After all, if she were the Truth, she wouldn’t need the custom-made “fantasies” of Paul, Matthew, Peter and the like?.. With all that, that these “holy” people had never even seen the living Christ! And he never taught them. History repeats itself, Isidora... It was so, and it will always be so until people finally begin to think for themselves. And while Dark Minds think for them, only struggle will always rule on Earth...
North fell silent, as if deciding whether to continue. But, after thinking a little, he nevertheless spoke again...
– “Thinking Dark Ones” from time to time give humanity a new God, always choosing him from the best, the brightest and the purest... but precisely those who are definitely no longer in the Circle of the Living. Because, you see, it is much easier to “dress” a dead person with a false “story of his Life” and release it into the world, so that it brings to humanity only what is “approved” by the “Thinking Dark Ones,” forcing people to plunge even deeper into the ignorance of the Mind , swaddling their Souls more and more into the fear of inevitable death, and thereby putting shackles on their free and proud Life...
– Who are the Thinking Dark Ones, North? – I couldn’t stand it.
– This is the Dark Circle, which includes “gray” Magi, “black” magicians, money geniuses (their own for each new period of time), and much more. Simply, it is the Earthly (and not only) unification of “dark” forces.
– And you don’t fight them?!!! You talk about this so calmly, as if it doesn’t concern you!.. But you also live on Earth, North!
A deadly melancholy appeared in his eyes, as if I had accidentally touched upon something deeply sad and unbearably painful.
- Oh, we fought, Isidora!.. How we fought! It was a long time ago... I, like you now, was too naive and thought that all you had to do was show people where the truth was and where the lies were, and they would immediately rush to attack for a “just cause.” These are just “dreams about the future,” Isidora... Man, you see, is an easily vulnerable creature... Too easily succumbed to flattery and greed. And other various “human vices”... People first of all think about their needs and benefits, and only then about the “other” living. Those who are stronger thirst for Power. Well, the weak look for strong defenders, not at all interested in their “cleanliness.” And this continues for centuries. That is why in any war the brightest and best die first. And the rest of the “remainers” join the “winner”... And so it goes in a circle. The earth is not ready to think, Isidora. I know you don’t agree, because you yourself are too pure and bright. But one person cannot overthrow the common EVIL, even someone as strong as you. Earthly Evil is too big and free. We tried once... and lost the best. That is why we will wait until the right time comes. There are too few of us, Isidora.

In Gross's Germany, everyone and everything is for sale.
All human relations, with the exception of the solidarity of the working class, are poisoned.
The world belongs to four breeds of pigs: the capitalist, the official, the priest and the swindler...
He was one of the most merciless judges of art.

Robert Hugh

In response to a request to write an autobiography for the collection “Young Art,” Georg Gross sent an article outlining his views.
He considered this more important. However, before the looks came...

Georg Ehrenfried Gross was born on July 26, 1893 in Berlin to Karl Ehrenfried Gross and Maria Wilhelmina Louise. When the boy was 7 years old, his father died. The mother worked as a seamstress, the earnings were not enough and the family moved to Pomerania, where the mother began working in an officer’s casino. Georg went to school, but left school at age 15 after slapping his teacher.

In 1909, Georg entered the Royal Academy of Arts in Dresden and specialized in graphics; in 1910 he began collaborating with satirical magazines.

In 1913, Georg arrived in Paris, where he spent seven months in Colarossi's studio. After Gross returned to Germany, his cartoons began to be published in the magazines “Ulk”, “Veselye Listki” and others. Georg also began creating illustrations for books and began painting in oils.

Georg's first works showed that he at least had abilities. Maximum talent.
He painted what he saw - on the streets, in cabarets, in cafes, in gateways. Sometimes it turned out funny, sometimes not funny, but true.
Sometimes it was annoying and indignant - is it really possible to draw THIS!
What does "THAT" mean? Doesn’t something that is not always customary to talk about in “decent society” exist in life and is not done in this very society?
Then why not draw THIS?

In August 1914, World War I began and George volunteered to join the army. He was 21 years old.
Was he a patriot (though what does it mean to be a patriot?)?

A naive youth? Young men looking for adventure? A dreamer, dreaming of accomplishing a “heroic feat”?

He was lucky and did not end up at the front. After an illness (inflammation of the auricle) in March 1915, Georg was discharged and remained in Berlin. There he met many artists, performers, and writers, among them the brothers Wieland and Helmut Herzfelde - an extremely important acquaintance that grew into friendship. Moreover, in joint creativity, based on common views on war, life, and art.

In 1915, as a protest against the anti-English hysteria unleashed in Germany, Georg Gross began signing his works as George Grosz, and Helmut Herzfelde became John Heartfield.
Let us note that national chauvinism, anti-German, anti-English, anti-Russian hysteria flourished in all countries participating in the war.
(see - examples of posters from World War I).

At the beginning of 1917, Georg was drafted into the army for the second time, but after being “insulted by the action” of one of the officers, he was arrested and placed in a hospital for the mentally ill, and in May 1917 he was finally discharged.

In 1917, the “First Album of Georg Grosch” was published, and a little later the “Little Album of Grosch”.

The result of the First World War for Germany was 5 million killed and wounded, hundreds of thousands of disabled people, widows, orphans, mass unemployment, inflation... But, as usually happens, in war someone loses their life, and someone makes a fortune from supplies to army.
A revolution was ripe in the country, and a new direction was born in art, which rejected all types and genres of “holy art” that talked about the beautiful and eternal - DADA - Dadaism was born.

"In those days (after World War I) we were all Dadaists. If the word DADA meant anything at all, it meant seething with discontent, dissatisfaction and cynicism. Defeat and political ferment always give rise to movements of this kind." (G. Gross)

At the DADA exhibition

In 1920, Georg married his former classmate Eva Peter.

He does not become a “petrel of the revolution”, but begins his own revolutionary struggle against society, culture and the art of exploitation and totalitarianism.

Gross's works of the 1920s can be characterized as political and social satire. Art critics define them both as satirical avant-gardeism and social expressionism. Some of his works (especially his early ones) are considered classics of Dadaism. Some later consider it the forerunner of such a movement as pop art.
But no one doubts that Georg Grosz entered the history of painting as an outstanding political artist.

And he made this choice quite consciously.

There was war, there was devastation, there was a policy of official patriotism, which permeated the press, literature, and painting. Those who saw the war understood that the truth was on the side of the people from the trenches. But power is on the side of others. And others.

Gross himself later wrote in his autobiography “A Little YES and a Big NO”:

“Anthems of hatred began to sound everywhere. They hated everyone and everyone: Jews, capitalists, Prussian Junkers, communists, the army, property owners, workers, the unemployed, the Black Reichswehr, control commissions, politicians, department stores, and Jews again. It was an orgy of incitement, and the republic itself was a weak thing, barely noticeable. It was a world full of negativity, denial, crowned with colorful tinsel and glitter, a world that many represented as the true, happy Germany, while a new barbarity was beginning."

In 1924, the album “This is a Man” was released, which was characterized by the bourgeois press as “pornographic hack.” For “insulting public morals,” Gross again went to trial and was fined 6,000 Reichsmarks.

In 1924 the artist became chairman of the artists' association "Rote Gruppe" (Red Group), and until 1927 he was a regular illustrator for publications in the communist press. In 1928 he became one of the founders of the Association of Revolutionary Artists of Germany.

In 1926, together with M. Harden, M. Pechstein and director E. Piscator, he founded the “Club 1926” - a society of politics, science and the arts.

In 1928, he prepared about 300 sketches for the film “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik” based on Jaroslav Hasek. Some of the drawings published in the album “Base” give rise to new accusations against Gross of blasphemy and insulting the church. Especially the image of the crucified Jesus Christ in a gas mask and army boots.

"Keep your mouth shut
and do your duty"

In 1932, Gross, at the invitation of the Art Students League in New York, visited the United States to give lectures, and the following year emigrated there with his wife and two sons.
The departure was accelerated by the news of a search in the apartment carried out by Nazi stormtroopers.

In the United States, both his work and behavior changed, the attacks on society went away, but the artist’s obligations to participate in the class struggle did not disappear.

About the period of his American life, Gross wrote that he tried to “not offend anyone and please everyone,” but “in order to make a career and make money, it is best to have no character at all.” Another rule of opportunism is “... to think that everything is beautiful! Everything, including things that are not really beautiful.”

Gross lost his humility and showed character when he learned of the death of a friend in a concentration camp. He released the anti-fascist album "Interregnum", which, however, not only was not successful in the United States, but, on the contrary, was criticized.
Americans at that time did not see any particular danger in fascism and the artist’s paintings seemed an absurd exaggeration.

Gross recalled:
“I begin to depict nakedness, sun, dunes, Arcadia, and grass, a good beautiful imagination... but alas, the more I continue my work, the more it changes and suddenly there is fire and destruction, dirt and dark ruins everywhere... ., as if I was being led by someone more knowledgeable and completely destructive.”

In 1937, the works of Georg Grosz (as well as Max Ernst, Paul Klee, Ernst Barlach, Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky and some other artists) - 650 works seized from 32 museums - were presented at the exhibition "Degenerate Art", organized on the initiative of Goebbels. Until April 1941, the exhibition was shown in 12 cities and was viewed with the goal of “purifying the German spirit” by more than 3 million Germans who experienced “righteous indignation” under the supervision of Nazi “tour guides.”

In addition to Georg Gross, D. Hartfield, B. Brecht, L. Feuchtwanger, E. Piscator, M. Dietrich, G. Eisler, T. Mann and many many others emigrated from Nazi Germany.

In 1938 Gross was deprived of German citizenship.

In 1946, Gross’s autobiography “A Little YES and a Big NO” was published in the USA.

Returning from the First World War, Gross painted what he saw in Berlin - cabarets, speculators, beggars, prostitutes, bankers, Prussian military, aristocrats, drug addicts, disabled people, police officers, burghers.
Later, the characters in his drawings included the Blackshirts and, of course, their leader, Adolf Hitler.

He was constantly accused of being “pornographic,” “insulting public morality,” and “anti-patriotism.”

People's Commissar of Education of the USSR A.V. Lunacharsky said about Georg Gross:

“... A brilliant, original draftsman, an evil and insightful caricaturist of bourgeois society and a convinced communist... This is truly amazing in terms of the power of talent and the power of malice. The only thing I can blame Gross for is that sometimes his drawings are extremely cynical...”

The preface to the collection of drawings by Georg Grosz, published in the USSR in 1931, stated:

“Gross’s strength lies in the fact that he is able to give with extraordinary acuteness a general expression of the class antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
...His attention is absorbed exclusively by a negative task, the task of exposing the bourgeoisie... while denying capitalism, he at the same time does not see a concrete way out for the working people and does not show in his drawings the force that is called upon to destroy the capitalist system."

The communists reproached Gross for being petty-bourgeois and lacking ideological leadership.

The Nazis called him a Bolshevik henchman. One of the German newspapers wrote: “Among Germans who have a healthy, natural way of thinking - both experts and laymen - Mr. Grosz's artistic talents are the least respected. Grosz is a skilled political agitator who uses his pencil rather than words for propaganda. He is not on the side of German artists, but with the Bolsheviks or rather political nihilists.”

Georg Gross was not an active supporter of the ideas of communism, although he collaborated with leftist and communist publications.
Georg Gross was not an underground hero who fought Nazism.

The Nazis confiscated drawings by Georg Gross from museums and galleries, and burned albums with his works in public squares.

Now any museum in the world is proud to have the works of this great master hanging in its halls.

In 1931, an album of drawings by Georg Gross was published in the USSR, which included several dozen drawings from the series “Das Gesicht der Herrschenden Klasse” (“The Face of the Ruling Class”), “Ecce Homo” (“This is a Man”), “Gott mit uns "("God is with us") and some others.

Before you move on to view Georg Grosz's drawings and other materials

EXPLANATION:

DRAWINGS by Georg Gross are presented in "albums" 1,2,3,4
HYMN TO THE PEACE - an early poem by Georg Grosz
DADA before the court - a story about a real trial
INSTEAD OF A BIOGRAPHY - this is what Georg himself considered necessary to say about his work
DADA INFO LINKS - links to sites and literature about Georg Grosz and Dadaism that you can purchase.
Later materials about Georg Gross will be supplemented.

AND ANOTHER WARNING
FOR
GIRLS and BOYS:

THIS IS NOT COOL!
THIS IS GEORGE GROSS!