1949.8 George Grosz, Pro and Contra | DMA Staging Content Management System

GENERAL DESCRIPTION

In his drawings, George Grosz quickly found a style that suited his caustic tone and brutal subject matter. He called this his "knife-hard style," which he claimed to have derived from bathroom graffiti and children's drawings. His embrace of a method composed of jagged linear marks and bereft of such niceties as shading was in some ways a denial of his astonishing powers as a draftsman. On the other hand, no artist less gifted with a pen could have summoned such a wealth of emotion from this limited set of means. "His drawings are full, but he does not fill them," his friend Theodor Dӓubler observed. "He spaces them with lines, with wires." In this drawing of a political debate turned brawl, the conflict of the rioting figures is described in flailing, disembodied limbs and bared teeth. Only the seated man at lower right, clutching at his scattered papers, is given any real bodily integrity, though here, too, Grosz uses line sparely and efficiently to describe the gruesome wrench of his leg and the bloody wreck of his shattered face.

Excerpt from

Heather MacDonald, Flower of the Prairie: George Grosz in Dallas (Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 2012), 16-17.

NOTES

n.d. (Changed to life dates of artist)

Object File Reviewed

Geography is probably Germany (Berlin) but cannot prove because n.d.

The Expressionist artist George Grosz came to America as an expatriate in 1932. His earlier work was political caricature and throughout his life he was concerned with the corruptions of a materialistic, capitalist society. Grosz's links with both Expressionism and Dada are apparent in the manic struggle of this scene, in which the middle classes seem engaged in frenzied self-destruction, reminiscent of W.H. Auden's line about "the brokers roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse".

From "Dallas Museum of Art, Selected Works," p.204

Catalogue essays

Dallas Art Association

Art Students League (New York, NY)

George Grosz in Berlin

Artist/designers

Grosz, George (American, born German, 1893-1959)

Cultures

Geography

Process/materials

Ink on paper

Historical periods

Individuals

Subject terms

RELATED OBJECTS

PROVENANCE

From 1949: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Association Purchase [1]

[1] The Dallas Art Association is the predecessor to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name was abandoned in 1970. Works from this collection were transferred to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

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

IMAGE ASSETS

WEB RESOURCES

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES

FUN FACTS

TEACHING IDEAS

RULES

Apply to objects where number equals 1949.8

General Description

In his drawings, George Grosz quickly found a style that suited his caustic tone and brutal subject matter. He called this his "knife-hard style," which he claimed to have derived from bathroom graffiti and children's drawings. His embrace of a method composed of jagged linear marks and bereft of such niceties as shading was in some ways a denial of his astonishing powers as a draftsman. On the other hand, no artist less gifted with a pen could have summoned such a wealth of emotion from this limited set of means. "His drawings are full, but he does not fill them," his friend Theodor Dӓubler observed. "He spaces them with lines, with wires." In this drawing of a political debate turned brawl, the conflict of the rioting figures is described in flailing, disembodied limbs and bared teeth. Only the seated man at lower right, clutching at his scattered papers, is given any real bodily integrity, though here, too, Grosz uses line sparely and efficiently to describe the gruesome wrench of his leg and the bloody wreck of his shattered face.