GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In 1936, the year this watercolor was created, George Grosz returned to the portfolio format, used with such success in Berlin, for the publication of sixty-four lithographs describing the troubled period between the end of World War I and the establishment of a fascist state in Germany. In his harrowing drawings for the portfolio, titled Interregnum, Grosz narrates the process by which the growing militarism of German culture overtook the public realm, transforming citizens into nascent soldiers.
Grosz devoted several of the plates in Interregnum to the infamous imprisonment and death of his friend Eric Mühsam, a leftist poet and playwright, at the hands of the Nazis. Mühsam was arrested in February 1933, just weeks after Grosz's own escape to New York. He was brutally tortured and eventually murdered at the Oranienburg concentration camp the following year. When this news reached the German emigre community in New York, Grosz shocked friends with his apparently callous dismissal of Mühsam's fate as the inevitable consequence of his political idealism.
The Interregnum drawings, however, reveal how deeply Grosz had internalized the news of Mühsam's death. "I've been working very hard, turned out a number of 'political' drawings with scenes from Hitlerboys' concentration camps," Grosz wrote to Wieland Herzfelde, his old Berlin publisher, in March 1935. "But I can't exhibit them over here, nor do I want to...it is enough for me if I can get rid of these nightmarish, hideous scenes by setting them down on paper. I've drawn several scenes dealing with the death of Mühsam—that is, dealing with the theme of the eternally and incessantly abused human individual."
Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, Flower of the Prairie: George Grosz in Dallas (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 2012), 25-27.
NOTES
Created in 1936
Object File Reviewed
Checked Piction
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2012:
Grosz devoted several plates in Interregnum to the imprisonment and death of his friend Eric Mu(ADD UMLAUT)hsam, a leftist poet and playwright, at the hands of the Nazis. Mu(ADD UMLAUT)hsam was arrested in February 1933, just weeks after Grosz's own escape to New York. He was brutally tortured and eventually murdered at the Oranienburg concentration camp the following year.
In 1935 Grosz began making drawings of Nazi brutality as a form of catharsis: "I can't exhibit them over here, nor do I want to...it is enough for me if I can get rid of these nightmarish, hideous scenes by setting them down on paper. I've drawn several scenes dealing with the death of M(ADD UMLAUT)hsam—that is, dealing with the theme of the eternally and incessantly abused human individual." Grosz likened Mu(ADD UMLAUT)hsam's fate to the wartime atrocities of past ages, such as those documented in Francisco Goya's Disasters of War (1810-20).
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Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location: Germany (nation): TGN: 7000084
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1963: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, anonymous gift in memory of Leon A. Harris [1][2]
[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
[2] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation’s collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.
AUDIO ASSETS
UMO: 13310104 Reflections on George Grosz, Gallery talk with Marty Grosz, George Grosz's son
UMO: 13316211 Politics as Art: Grosz's Influence on Political Cartooning
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General Description
In 1936, the year this watercolor was created, George Grosz returned to the portfolio format, used with such success in Berlin, for the publication of sixty-four lithographs describing the troubled period between the end of World War I and the establishment of a fascist state in Germany. In his harrowing drawings for the portfolio, titled Interregnum, Grosz narrates the process by which the growing militarism of German culture overtook the public realm, transforming citizens into nascent soldiers.
Grosz devoted several of the plates in Interregnum to the infamous imprisonment and death of his friend Eric Mühsam, a leftist poet and playwright, at the hands of the Nazis. Mühsam was arrested in February 1933, just weeks after Grosz's own escape to New York. He was brutally tortured and eventually murdered at the Oranienburg concentration camp the following year. When this news reached the German emigre community in New York, Grosz shocked friends with his apparently callous dismissal of Mühsam's fate as the inevitable consequence of his political idealism.
The Interregnum drawings, however, reveal how deeply Grosz had internalized the news of Mühsam's death. "I've been working very hard, turned out a number of 'political' drawings with scenes from Hitlerboys' concentration camps," Grosz wrote to Wieland Herzfelde, his old Berlin publisher, in March 1935. "But I can't exhibit them over here, nor do I want to...it is enough for me if I can get rid of these nightmarish, hideous scenes by setting them down on paper. I've drawn several scenes dealing with the death of Mühsam—that is, dealing with the theme of the eternally and incessantly abused human individual."
Excerpt from
Heather MacDonald, Flower of the Prairie: George Grosz in Dallas (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 2012), 25-27.
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
Notes
Created in 1936
Object File Reviewed
Checked Piction
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2012:
Grosz devoted several plates in Interregnum to the imprisonment and death of his friend Eric Mu(ADD UMLAUT)hsam, a leftist poet and playwright, at the hands of the Nazis. Mu(ADD UMLAUT)hsam was arrested in February 1933, just weeks after Grosz's own escape to New York. He was brutally tortured and eventually murdered at the Oranienburg concentration camp the following year.
In 1935 Grosz began making drawings of Nazi brutality as a form of catharsis: "I can't exhibit them over here, nor do I want to...it is enough for me if I can get rid of these nightmarish, hideous scenes by setting them down on paper. I've drawn several scenes dealing with the death of M(ADD UMLAUT)hsam—that is, dealing with the theme of the eternally and incessantly abused human individual." Grosz likened Mu(ADD UMLAUT)hsam's fate to the wartime atrocities of past ages, such as those documented in Francisco Goya's Disasters of War (1810-20).
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location: Germany (nation): TGN: 7000084
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
From 1963: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, anonymous gift in memory of Leon A. Harris [1][2]
[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
[2] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation’s collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.
AUDIO ASSETS
UMO: 13310104 Reflections on George Grosz, Gallery talk with Marty Grosz, George Grosz's son
UMO: 13316211 Politics as Art: Grosz's Influence on Political Cartooning
VIDEO ASSETS
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