“Human beings are not good, they are cattle!” declared George Grosz, clearly illustrating his opinion in his works. To this day, the Berlin artist is famous for his satirical illustrations, which address the moral decline in Germany between World War I and Hitler’s rise to power in 1933. Grosz wanted his works to address the social consciousness and take a look behind the façade. His stylistic device: horror paired with humor. He turned his art into a weapon and used sharp lines to lift the glittering curtain of clichés surrounding the Golden Twenties. He showed the misery and dark side of his time in an unvarnished way, exposing human abysses and turning the innermost outward. His illustrations were printed in various contemporary art journals and political magazines and thus quickly became known to a wide audience. Even during Grosz's lifetime, they were met with both admiration and criticism – the artist appeared in court several times on charges including “attacks on public morality” and “blasphemy”. The subsequent trials mainly concerned the drawing “‘Christus mit der Gasmaske’” (Christ with a Gas Mask), which is also shown in the exhibition. Today, they are legal case studies on the still relevant topic of artistic freedom.
The exhibition, which was originally created by Sabine Rewald for the Metropolitan Museum in New York, presents around 100 works. The focus is on works that Grosz created between 1917 and 1933, mainly in Berlin. Many of the paintings, watercolors, drawings, and graphic prints come from renowned public and private collections in Europe and America. The presentation is further expanded by numerous works from the Staatsgalerie's own collection.
Exhibition catalog
A catalog has been issued to accompany the exhibition “Glitter and Poison of the Twenties: George Grosz in Berlin.”
We would like to thank the partners of this exhibition
