Object Notes

 

This painting on silk, created as a wall hanging, is a fine example of Japanese landscape painting. As is often found in Japanese compositions, a largely empty upper area contrasts with the image of the cranes placed off-center in the lower portion of the scene.

This tea bowl is an example of shino ware. Shino ware developed specifically for use in the tea ceremony. The kiln centers of Karatsu and Takatori were founded to produce everyday wares, but eventually also received orders from tea masters to create wares suitable for tea, such as this.

After moving to the United States, George Grosz claimed to have abandoned the political engagement of his earlier work and turned his attention to a new subject matter, particularly landscapes and nudes. These soothing images struck many of his old friends as a cynical retreat from his earlier political images.

This vantage chosen by Grosz was somewhat atypical for postcard views of the city, but it allowed him a clear view of the skyscrapers that dominated the skyline of Dallas, most prominently the Mercantile Building, the Magnolia Building, the Davis Building, and the Adolphus hotel, where Grosz stayed when he visited Dallas to make sketches for the series Impress

Hannah Arendt, the German political philosopher, recalled that for her generation, Grosz's drawings "seemed to us not satires but realistic reportage: we knew those types, they were all around us." His drawing of a Prussian military officer demonstrates how Grosz could balance an image on the knife-edge between portrait and caricature.