Word: grosz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Last week it was possible to give only a preliminary introduction to the paintings of George Grosz which are being shown in the Dunster House exhibit of contemporary watercolors and lithographs. By making use of a specific example, a painting entitled "The Way Of All Flesh," perhaps a clearer and more concrete expression of the artist's method can be presented...
Paul Gauguin once wrote, "All this must be; and after all, it's of no consequence. The earth still turns round; everyone defecates; only Zola bothers about it." Now the name of George Grosz might perhaps be substituted for that of Zola in the light of many of Grosz's paintings which are being shown in the current Dunster House exhibit of contemporary watercolors and lithographs...
...absurd to criticize Grosz on the score of techniue, for he is a polished craftsman. In most instances his supposedly crude manipulation of line and what may appear to be a sloppy method of organization, in reality, are masterly examples of precise adaptation of style to subject matter. And it is equally absurd to criticize the Germanborn American on the basis of obscenity or vulgarity. Obscenity and vulgarity, in art at any rate, imply a certain amount of conscious effort on the part of the artist to be either obscene or vulgar; and indications of such a motive seem...
There is, however, another side to be taken. Grosz is primarily a caricaturist, and his unrelenting attacks upon society and its institutions can be partly attributed to a sincere desire to bring to people's minds the notion that all is not well. His bitter realization that the World War had nothing to do with spiritual purification made him turn against those phases of society which seemed to him to be contributing factors toward causing war. Hence Grosz's early work consists of a condemnation of the money-grabbing, cafe-inhabiting industrial magnate, and the puppet-like member...
...this is not the only type of art in the Germanic Museum. It offers us a wide diversity in types of art; we are able to travel from the crisp little sketches by Oberlaender to a decidedly harsh watercolor by George Grosz. In this painting, called "Brotherly Love," there can be found the bloodshed, lust, and intensity of passion which characterizes war. His bright colors shed a distasteful but highly effective glow, and the physical gyrations of his men serve to heighten the wild and futile nature of armed conflict. Grosz never minces words; he seldom argues...