George Grosz

Born 1893 and died 1959 in Berlin, Germany.

Studied arts in Berlin, at that time a centre of modern and progressive art.

Part and among the founders of the strongly political Dada-Group, Grosz hated the society he lived in: An artist who survived through the times of the last German emperor, the crisis of the Weimar Republic, the rise and fall of the national socialists and to world wars. Tough and shaping times that influenced his art in many ways.

As a result of the despair and pain he experienced during the First World War he changed his name to an English version: Born as Georg Gross he became famous and died as George Grosz– choosing never to have a German name again.

The divided artist saw his art as an instrument of influencing political events and developments. By picking on the political circumstances, the social injustices, criticising what he made responsible for societies problems. While still living in Germany his themes focused on the modern urban scenery and its perversities – a city that he described as a released chaos. The sketchings, drawings and paintings some emphasized with watercolours of the late 1920s made him gain worldwide recognition at a later point, but were as well a reason for the artist to be chased away, to leave the Germany he hated when Hitler came to power. Migrating to the USA and only returning to Berlin about 25 years later, where he passed away shortly after his return.

(Quelle: Zeit Online, WhoIsWho)