G E O R G E G R O S Z E C C E H O M O
‘My drawings will naturally stay true – they are fireproof. ey will later be seen as Goya’s work. ey are not documents of the class struggle, but eternally living documents of human stupidity and brutality.’
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40 Dr. Huelsenbeck am Ende [1920] above:
25 Melancholie [1915] back cover:
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24 Der besessene Forstadjunkt [1918]
G E O R G E G R O S Z E C C E H O M O
1 0 0 P R I N T S 1923
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G E O R G E G R O S Z E C C E H O M O
Grosz’s Ecce Homo, a portfolio of 84 lithographs and 16 coloured reproductions printed by offset lithography, was published in January of 1923, though many of the original drawings were completed some years before. e suite depicts a decrepit Berlin, its sole inhabitants the lecherous and begrimed, middle-aged, middle-class society whose grotesque lives spill wantonly from boudoirs and bar rooms into the city streets.
edition size: the series was published in 5 editions, with a total of 10,000 printings. Of these, the first two ‘deluxe’ editions and countless copies of the other three editions have almost entirely been lost to the public book-burnings of the Nazis in 1933, though in 1965 the printing firm Brussel and Brussel reproduced the third edition on smaller paper and at a reduced edition size, as did the Grove Press a year later. e prints offered here are from the original and more scarce 1922 ough Grosz’s images captured the seething printing of that edition, their colour and corruption that had grown out of hyper- depth of line much richer than the later inflation and the political turmoil of the reprints. early 1920s, they were ill received by the authorities. Following their publication, Grosz’s work has the objective power of Goya’s Grosz was prosecuted for offending the sense Disasters of War, and it is remarkable that in of modesty and morality of the German public; such a hostile environment and with such 24 of the plates were confiscated; a great provocative material he survived the wrath of number of the original drawings were those he lampooned. Writing on the volatile destroyed; Grosz and his associates were Germany of the 1920s, Grosz remarked that each fined, Grosz’s total penalties across the he was a minute part of this chaos . . . the splinter trial amounting to 6,000 marks. that was miraculously saved when the wood went up in the flames of barbarism. We can be e attention Ecce Homo received from the thankful, too, that some of his work escaped establishment was in part due to its huge with him.
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ECCE HOMO: CONTENTMENT AND SUICIDE IN HIGH STYLE Ecce Homo, perhaps Grosz’s most enduring collection of images, has with retrospect acquired that same journalistic intensity that characterises the etchings of Goya’s Disasters of War. As Berenson and Muhlen have noted, Grosz, like Goya, ‘tried to show that man’s self-destructiveness is the totality of evil. e ruins are not those of specific places but the mirror of crumbling civilisation . . .’ However, that these images pre-date the years of Nazi rule in Germany lends them a powerful feeling of prescience. Grosz’s social ‘ruins’ are not ‘crumbling’, but rather seething beneath the surface.
e eroticism of Ecce Homo becomes the central element of the suite, but it is not an eroticism to entice; though Grosz was just 30 years old when he published the series, and younger when the original drawings for the lithographs were completed, the inhabitants of Ecce Homo are all middle-aged and older, defined by gaunt eyes and rounded, sagging bellies. Plate IV (opposite), the fourth of the colour reproductions and the titular image in the series, even appears to feature a ghostly self-portrait in the foreground of Grosz imagined as an elderly man. For all its orgiastic shamelessness, the sex in Grosz’s images is tired, rather than sensual e title Ecce Homo (‘Behold the Man’) - sordid, rather than erotic. refers to the pronouncement made by Pontius Pilate as he presented a bloodied Unsurprisingly, the explicit sleaze of Ecce Christ to the hostile masses of Jerusalem. Homo’s imagery did not go unnoticed by Grosz’s allusion is apt: just as Christ, who the judiciary when the local authorities had been proclaimed as the Messiah six brought charges against Grosz for what days before the crucifixion, was brought was deemed ‘pornographic material.’ to his knees, the image of German Grosz’s overt focus on the depiction of personification - the brave soldier, the genitalia in particular was brought up in just judge, the peacekeeper - is similarly the trial. His response was simple: ‘I see presented to the public as broken, things as I have described them.’ immoral, debauched and depraved. Grosz’s Berlin has its flies undone, a fat ough the suite was a resounding artistic cigar wedged between fatter fingers while, success, it put him at serious risk from both in the background, wrinkled women sit the establishment and the general public. naked waiting to attend their clientele; Aer Ecce Homo’s publication, Grosz was this is not a messianic city. shouted at and attacked in the streets in broad daylight; the judge in the ensuing
trial ruled that Grosz and his colleagues be fined heavily; and many of the original images and their plates were confiscated and destroyed, while countless numbers of the published editions were later thrown onto the literary bonfires of the 1930s. Grosz was now firmly on the government radar and in the later years of the 1920s he feared for his and his wife’s safety, especially with the growing influence of the Nazi party. In the year before they came into power, Grosz had a premonitory dream urging him to leave Germany; the very next day a telegram arrived inviting him to teach in America that coming summer. Just 18 days aer Grosz le for the U.S. permanently Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, where the houses of anti-establishment artists were broken into, studio windows smashed and paintings burned while their painters were taken away to be jailed, tortured and beaten to death. In his autobiography, Grosz describes his bewilderment at being saved from imminent arrest under Nazi rule: ‘I know today that a definite Power wanted to save me from annihilation. Why I was to be spared, I do not know. Perhaps it was to serve as a witness. But so it was that I came to America.’
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THE PRINTS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
Frederichstraße [1918], 10 Familie [1916], 15 Aus der Jugendzeit [1922], 15 Grimmiger Mann [1918], 16 Gruß aus Sachsen [1920], 15 Marseille [1919], 15 Schönheitsabend in der Motzstraße [1918], 12 Bessere Leute [1920], 12 Entkleidung [1921], 16 Stammtischstudien [1919], 12 Der Besuch [1920], 12 Mord [1916], 15 Hinterbliebene [1921], 15 Zu Hause [1922], 15 Charakterkopf [1921], 29 Verzückung [1922], 11 Verlobung [1922], 16 Bürgerliche Welt [1920], 12 Nachwuchs [1922], 36 Louise [1919], 11 Der Hypochonder Otto Schmalhausen [1921], 15 Separé [1922], 19 Die Verantwortlichen [1920], 12 Der besessene Forstadjunkt [1918], b cover Melancholie [1915], inside fr cover Frühlings Erwachen [1922], 19 Schwere Zeiten [1919], 19 Promenade [1922], 26 Hausherr [1919], 19 Hahn im Korbe [1921], 16 Die Macht der Musik [1922], 9 Lustmord in der Ackerstraße [1916], 16 Hochfinanz [1922], 26
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Nachts [1919], 16 Der absolute Monarchist [1918], 14 Plunderstunde [1922], 26 In Gedanken [1920], 11 Aenne [1921], 11 Interieur [1915], 26 Dr. Huelsenbeck am Ende [1920], fr cover Café [1916], 16 Rudi S. [1921], 16 Germanentag [1921], 20 Dr. S. und Frau [1921], 20 Nach Ladenschluß [1920], 26 Franz Jung gewidmet [1917], 29 Heimatliche Gestalten [1920], 20 Kommerzienrats Töchterlein [1921], 20 Quergebäude vier Treppen [1916], 26 Akrobaten [1915], 20 Eva [1918], 20 Oalte Burschenherrlichkeit [1922], 20 Studie [1922], 20 Ledebour [1919], 20 Garnisonverwendungsfähig [1920], 25 Vor dem Tee [1922], 25 Ungleiches Paar [1922], 25 Apachen [1916], 30 Ehrenmann [1921], 16 Richard Wagner Gedenkblatt [1921], 25 Genreszene [1922], 25 Esplanade [1921], 25 Eheszene [1915], 25 An der Grenze [1920], 2 Magenbeschwerden [1921], 25 Haifische [1921], 30 Allein [1922], 30 Querschnitt [1920], 25
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Krach [1921], 29 Ständchen [1922], 29 Deutsche Männer [1922], 29 Jugend [1920], 15 Vorstadt [1917], 32 Trio [1919], 28 Silberne Hochzeit [1922], 29 Krise [1922], 18 Schäferstündchen [1921], 29 Sonntag früh [1922], 29 Dr. Benn's Nachtcafé [1918], 30 Köpfe [1921], 29 Ausgang [1921], 23 Athlet [1922], 23 Das Ende [1917], 23 Das Vaterunser [1921], 23
I Passanten [1921], 17 II Whisky [1917], 22 III Schönheit, dich will ich preisen [1920], 21 IV Ecce homo [1921], 6 V Pappi und Mammi [1922], 22 VI Niederkun [1916], 22 VII Kra und Anmut [1922], 31 VIII Der Mädchenhändler [1918], 22 IX Soirée [1922], 27 X Johannisnacht [1918], 33 XI Professor Freud gewidmet [1922], 24 XII Der Mensch ist gut [1921], 33 XIII Walzertraum [1921], 33 XIV Ach, knallige Welt, du seliges Abnormitätenkabinett [1916], 33 XV Vor Sonnenaufgang [1922], 34 XVI Dämmerung [1922], 13
84 lithographs and 16 coloured reproductions printed by offset lithography, published in January 1923. Paper size is 25.5 x 35.5 cm.
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CHRONOLOGY 1893
Born in Berlin.
1909
Studies in Dresden for two years before attending Berlin Art Academy.
1913
Moves to Paris and develops characteristic drawing style.
1914-15 Volunteers for military service, but is hospitalised and discharged. 1917
Conscripted and unsuccessfully attempts suicide. Fortunately, patron Count Kessler intercepts orders for his execution.
1919-20 Joins German Dada movement alongside Otto Dix, Max Ernst, Kurt Schwitters, John Heartfield and others. 1923
Ecce Homo is published with images from drawings completed between 1915 and 1922.
1924
Taken to court for indecent representations, which offend the sense of modesty and morality of a person of normal feeling following publication of Ecce Homo. Fined 6,000 marks.
1928
Faces criminal charges for blasphemy and defamation of the German military aer lithographs of the Hintergrund (‘Background’) drawings are published. Eventually found ‘not guilty.’
1932-33 Invited to teach in America at Art Students League, New York and, aer brief return, leaves permanently just 18 days before Hitler’s ascension to power. 1937
Grosz’s works entered in Degenerate Art exhibition curated by Nazi government. 285 works removed and many destroyed.
1946
Writes autobiography, entitled A Little Yes and a Big No, while living in Cape Cod.
1954
Important retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum, New York.
1959
Returns to live in Berlin in June where he died weeks later on 6th July.
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SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY George Grosz, H. Bittner, Arts, Inc., New York (1960) Grosz, A Little Yes and a Big No, e Dial Press, New York (1946) I. Kranzfelder, Grosz, Taschen, Köln (2001) H. Hess, George Grosz, Studio Vista, London (1974) Love Above All and Other Drawings, Dover Publications, New York (1971) F. Whitford, e Berlin of George Grosz: Drawings, Watercolours and Prints, 1912-1930, Yale University Press, London (1997) 19
The prints are presented in a small oak frame with acid free mount and backing. Black line £350 each. Colour £750 each. All prices include frame, vat and uk delivery.
Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ 01572 821424 Text: © Max Waterhouse 2013 Photography: Christian Soro Design: Roger Porter goldmarkart.com
‘e world of the 1920s was like a boiling cauldron. We did not see those who fed the flames. However, we did feel the growing heat and watched the violent seething. ere were speakers and preachers on every street corner. Sounds of hate could be heard everywhere. ere was a universal hatred: hatred of Jews, Junkers, capitalists, Communists, militarists, home-owners, workers, the Reichswehr, the Allied Control Commission, corporations and politicians. A real orgy of hate was brewing, and behind it all the weak Republic was scarcely discernible. An explosion was imminent.
Some recent Goldmark publications: Jacob Epstein Sculpture, Drawings and Paintings, 2008 Roderic Barrett Paintings and Prints, 2009 Dora Holzhandler Paintings, 2010 Francis Davison Collages, Paintings and Drawings, 2010 Marc Chagall e Fables of la Fontaine, 2011 Sid Burnard Birds, Boats and Mythical Beasts, 2012 Rembrandt Etchings, 2012 Francisco de Goya Los Proverbios, 2013
e world in Germany was unstable, virtually cracking, although it appeared to be happy and gay. People were deceived and believed that the joyousness had depth. Unfortunately, this was not the case. I am writing this because I was a minute part of this chaos; I was the splinter that was miraculously saved when the wood went up in the flames of barbarism. We were like sailboats flying our red, white or black sails against the wind. Some boats displayed the emblem of the United Front – others, that of the Communists, the Nazis or the Stahlhelm. But viewed from the distance, all these flags looked alike. We had to manipulate our boats with the greatest skill to keep them from capsizing, for we could see the bottom of many a boat that had already been hit by the approaching hurricane. We saw its symptoms but did not understand them. We heard its roar but as through deafened ears. All we knew was that a wind was blowing from the East, another from the West and that between them the entire world was about to be engulfed.’ A Little Yes and a Big No, George Grosz (autobiography), e Dial Press, New York (1946) pp 201-2
‘It is a full and comprehensive object lesson, a panoramic view of life, at once art and historical document, a chronicle and not an entertainment.’ Max Herrmann-Neisse
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