The Collection George Grosz

Georg Ehrenfried Grosz was born in Berlin. He attended the Dresden Academy from 1909 to 1911, studying drawing, and Berlin’s School of Arts and Crafts from 1912 to 1914. During that time he also spent a few months at the Atelier Colarossi in Paris, during 1913. He spent short periods of time serving in the army during the First World War, but then went on to create fiercely anti-war art criticising the middle class and capitalist corruption. He produced political satirist drawings that were published, but was taken to court several times for offensive and blasphemous content. He played a major role in the Dada movement, taking part in an exhibition, which invited gallery-goers to destroy the art on show. A radical and a Communist, Grosz fled Berlin in 1933, settling in America. Had he stayed, he would have almost certainly been killed for his outspoken views on Nazi Germany. Although he had always dreamed of America, he did not have the artistic success he hoped for, and moved back to Berlin in 1958, where he died the next year.