George Grosz German-American, 1893-1959

George Grosz was a German-born artist and satirist best known for his savage, politically charged drawings and paintings that exposed the corruption, militarism, and moral decay of early 20th-century society. A central figure in Weimar-era Berlin, Grosz became one of the most incisive visual critics of modern life before emigrating to the United States in 1933.

Born in Berlin, Grosz studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and later in Berlin, where he was deeply affected by the social upheaval surrounding World War I. His early work aligned with Expressionism and Dada, movements that rejected traditional aesthetics in favor of provocation and critique. Grosz developed a sharply graphic style influenced by caricature, mass media, and urban spectacle, using exaggeration and distortion to indict political leaders, military elites, and bourgeois hypocrisy.

During the 1910s and 1920s, Grosz emerged as a leading figure of New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit), a movement characterized by unsparing realism and social commentary. His images of drunken officers, corrupt businessmen, prostitutes, and wounded veterans offered a merciless portrait of postwar Germany. These works led to repeated prosecutions for blasphemy and obscenity, underscoring the confrontational power of his art.

Grosz’s practice extended across drawing, painting, printmaking, and illustration, with drawing remaining his primary vehicle for critique. His line is aggressive and economical, conveying psychological tension and moral indictment with brutal clarity. While deeply political, his work is also rooted in rigorous draftsmanship and compositional control.

With the rise of National Socialism, Grosz emigrated to the United States, settling in New York. There, his work shifted in tone, becoming more allegorical and less overtly satirical, though still marked by disillusionment and moral urgency. Grosz taught at the Art Students League of New York, influencing a generation of American artists and contributing to transatlantic dialogues on modernism and political art.

Today, his work is held in major international museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Neue Nationalgalerie.