George Grosz: The Big No (New Art Gallery, Walsall: Exhibition

George Grosz: The Big No (New Art Gallery, Walsall: Exhibition Catalogues)

Inspired by the same society that gave rise to Christopher Isherwoodâ€™s Berlin stories and novels, the drawings in George Grosz: The Big No present a caustic, comic view of Germany in the troubled years of the Weimar Republic. Ranging from primitive and graffiti-like drawings to complex Futurist street scenes with teeming crowds of overlapping figures, this collection shows Grosz at the height of his satirical powers, through the works from his largest portfolio, Ecce Homo. Pimps, black-marketeers, prostitutes, demobbed soldiers and the nouveau-riche rub shoulders in drawings of razor-sharp acuity and technical precision. Also included are the powerful, anti-militarist Hintergrund drawings, originally published in 1928 to accompany Erwin Piscatorâ€™s production of The Good Soldier Schwejk, which resulted in criminal charges being brought against Grosz for â€œblasphemy and defamation of the German military.â€ George Grosz: The Big No is an essential guide to one of the twentieth centuryâ€™s most important satirists.

George Grosz: The Big No (New Art Gallery, Walsall: Exhibition Catalogues)