Artist Georg Gross is a painter, cartoonist and graphic artist of German origin. One of the main directions of his work was social and political satire. His works, created in the early stages, are defined by art critics as a classic of Dada. In the future, the work of Gross tends to satirical avant-garde. In the history of painting, he remained as an outstanding political artist. This article will discuss the main milestones of the biography of the artist Georg Gross, including the creative one.
early years
Georg Gross, whose photo is given in the article, was born in Berlin in 1893. His father died when the child was seven years old. Mother was a low-paid seamstress, and the family had to move to Pomerania in search of a better life. There, her mother worked in an officer casino, and Georg attended school. And at 15, when the young man slapped his teacher, he left classes.
In 1909, Georg began his studies at the Royal Academy of Arts in Dresden. In 1910, he collaborated with several satirical magazines.
In the years 1912-13. the novice painter spent 7 months in Paris, where he studied at a private art school, which was founded by the Italian sculptor Colarossi. After that - continued education in Berlin, in the art-industrial school.
Volunteer
After returning to Germany, the artist publishes his cartoons in magazines, makes illustrations for books and begins to paint in oil. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Georg volunteered for the German Army. Due to inflammation of the auricle, he was commissioned in 1915.
In 1917 he was again called up for military service. After he came into conflict with one of the officers, he was arrested for “insulting his actions” and placed in a mental hospital. In May 1917, Georg was finally commissioned. In the same year two of his first albums were released.
The artist attracted the attention of famous publicists and critics. The main subject of his drawings was the Berlin life of that time with its whirlpool of entertainment, vices and immorality.
The first post-war years
In 1918, George Gross was one of those who founded a group of Dadaists in Berlin. This trend in art arose as a reaction to post-war reality. According to the Dadaists, the brutality of the war revealed the meaninglessness of existence. Therefore, their main idea was the systematic destruction of any aesthetics.
The main principles of Dadaism are irrationality, denial of any canons in art, cynicism, unsystematicity and frustration. Many of these principles are reflected in the work of Gross.
In 1918, being inspired by the revolutionary events in Germany, as well as the news of the revolution in Russia, he joined the November Group, and a little later, the German Communist Party. In 1919 he takes part in the Spartacist uprising and is arrested. But he managed to escape the prison by resorting to using fake documents.
Together with friends, Gross publishes the magazine “Play” (“Bankruptcy”), and his drawings are printed in brochures belonging to the series “Little Revolutionary Library”.
1920s
In 1920, George Gross marries Eve Peter, his former fellow practitioner. He continues to paint for satirical magazines; in 1921 he illustrated The Adventures of Tartare from Tarascon, a novel by Alfons Daudet. And then he released an album of drawings called "God is with us." They are perceived as "insulting the honor of the German army." Gross was fined 300 marks, and the drawings were destroyed by a court verdict.
In 1922, the artist embarked on a trip to the USSR, which lasted five months. He meets with Lenin and Trotsky. After that, he reconsiders his views, and in the biography of Georg Gross, a turning point occurs - he leaves the Communist Party. A number of criticisms of Lenin lead to the fact that some of the publications containing his quotes end up in the USSR in a special guard.
Further creativity
But the creative protest of the artist against injustice in society did not end there. In 1923, he became chairman of the Red Group. This is an association of proletarian artists that has formed around a satirical magazine called "Club". The “Red Group” initiated and organized an exhibition of new German art in the USSR.
In 1924, 1925 and in 1927 the artist lives in Paris again. In 1924, his album "This is a Man." In the bourgeois press, he is noted as "pornographic trash." Gross again appears in court on charges of "insulting public morality", he was fined 6 thousand Reichsmarks.
In the same year, G. Gross became chairman of the Red Group association of artists. And in 1926 - “Club 1926” - a society of politics, science and art. Until 1927, he regularly illustrated publications in the communist press. In 1928, Gross joined the Association of German Revolutionary Artists.
Some of the drawings included in the album "Basis", caused accusations of George Gross in insulting the church and blasphemy. In particular, this concerns the image of the crucifix with Jesus Christ in army boots and a gas mask.
Emigration
In 1932, Gross emigrated to the United States with his wife and two sons. Departure was expedited by a search conducted by Hitler attack aircraft in his apartment. From 1933 to 1955, the artist was a teacher in New York. In 1938, he lost his German citizenship and received American.
His work in Nazi Germany was declared "degenerate art." In 1946, his autobiographical book, A Little Yes and A Big No, was published. In the 1950s, Gross opened a private art school. In 1954, he was elected to the US Academy of Art and Literature. In 1959, George Gross returned to West Berlin, and soon, in the early morning, he was found dead on the doorstep of the house.