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拍品专文
Ralph Jentsch has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
The period between Grosz’ first discharge from active service in 1915 and second call-up in 1917 was characterized by intense creativity, and there was no slackening in his artistic activity and political agitation after the war in the 1920s. The constant threat against and persecution of his art and of the magazines and books published by Malik-Verlag in Berlin did not demoralize Grosz. Instead, they stimulated powers in him that only further heightened the confrontation between him and the authorities. Drawing after drawing portrayed and denounced the immorality, vice and dissolution of the times. Once again, Grosz’ anger was repeatedly directed at the military, the church, the authorities and the government parties with whom, he believed, the score had not yet been sufficiently settled for the crime of the First World War, its causes and consequences.
Grosz, like other intellectuals of all different social backgrounds, had become member of the Communist Party when it was founded at the end of 1918. It was the ordinary people who suffered by the consequences of a murderous war that had cost the lives of millions. However, also the survivors were losers. Unemployment, inflation, starvation and an increasing right wing movement were a daily occurrence in Germany of these years. Opponents of the Republic were brutally persecuted, put into prison without trial, cynically called protective custody. However, in prison these poor people were defencelessly at the mercy of thugs, being beaten and tortured and often shot while attempting to escape. This very drawing shows how a warder beats the victim with hand grenades, before firing the final shot.
Ralph Jentsch
The period between Grosz’ first discharge from active service in 1915 and second call-up in 1917 was characterized by intense creativity, and there was no slackening in his artistic activity and political agitation after the war in the 1920s. The constant threat against and persecution of his art and of the magazines and books published by Malik-Verlag in Berlin did not demoralize Grosz. Instead, they stimulated powers in him that only further heightened the confrontation between him and the authorities. Drawing after drawing portrayed and denounced the immorality, vice and dissolution of the times. Once again, Grosz’ anger was repeatedly directed at the military, the church, the authorities and the government parties with whom, he believed, the score had not yet been sufficiently settled for the crime of the First World War, its causes and consequences.
Grosz, like other intellectuals of all different social backgrounds, had become member of the Communist Party when it was founded at the end of 1918. It was the ordinary people who suffered by the consequences of a murderous war that had cost the lives of millions. However, also the survivors were losers. Unemployment, inflation, starvation and an increasing right wing movement were a daily occurrence in Germany of these years. Opponents of the Republic were brutally persecuted, put into prison without trial, cynically called protective custody. However, in prison these poor people were defencelessly at the mercy of thugs, being beaten and tortured and often shot while attempting to escape. This very drawing shows how a warder beats the victim with hand grenades, before firing the final shot.
Ralph Jentsch