George Grosz (1893-1959)

"Nude Woman in Wicker Chair"

Charcoal on paper, 12.5" x 9.5" unframed, 25" x 22" framed

 
George Grosz was born in Berlin, Germany. He studied at the Dresden Academy of Art in 1910 and the School of Applied Arts in Berlin in 1912, studying with Emil Orlik. He served in the German army during World War I but was court-martialed for insubordination. From 1918 to 1932, he lived in Berlin, where he was one of the founders of the Dada Movement and styled himself an American, much to the dismay of his left-wing friends. The work he did during this period has become very popular in Germany. His satirical depictions and Marxist association caused him to flee Germany. In 1932, he first went to America where he was guest instructor for two terms at the Art Students League in New York. He became a United States citizen, moving his family to Long Island. For over twenty years, he taught at the Art Students League; in 1937, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1941, the Museum of Modern Art circulated a traveling exhibition of his work. In New York, from age 40, he turned his painting away from leading-edge avant garde to simpler perspectives and allegorical themes of cavorting nudes, using his wife, Eva, as his model, and focusing on his sexual attraction to her Rubensesque body, both maternal and arousing. The piece in our collection is a striking example of this focus. He also opened an art school with Maurice Sterne and did opera stage designs. In 1993, a major retrospective of his work at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin marked the 100th Anniversary of his birth, and included were over 300 paintings, drawings and watercolors. From his drawings, it was apparent that he was a master draftsman. He is exhibited in nearly every major museum in the world and the number is to extensive to list (approx. 53 at current count).