The Sketchbooks of George Grosz

by George Grosz

This book explores surprising sides of Berlin Dada activist George Grosz (1893 -- 1959), known for his acerbic drawings of the teens and twenties that mocked the decadent ruling class and the hypocritical petit bourgeois. His sketchbooks, however, encompass a broader array of themes and styles, childhood drawings, caricature, satire, landscapes, nude studies, teaching instructions, sketches of people, and street scenes. From his early beginnings in his home town of Stolp to his late work in the U.S. where he settled in 1933, the nearly 200 sketchbooks offer new insights into Grosz's development and reveal a scrutinizing, yet witty and humane observer. Includes summary catalogue of all extant sketchbooks.(Harvard University Art Museum)

191 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 1993

About the author

George Grosz (German: [ɡʁoːs]; born Georg Ehrenfried Groß) was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity groups during the Weimar Republic. He immigrated to the United States in 1933, and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. Abandoning the style and subject matter of his earlier work, he exhibited regularly and taught for many years at the Art Students League of New York. In 1959 he returned to Berlin, where he died shortly afterwards.