Lot Essay
In November, 1914 Grosz volunteered for service in the German army, but was discharged only six months later because of illness. The brief time he spent at the front and during his hospitalization among severely wounded and shell-shocked soldiers left an indelible scar.
The time I spent in the stranglehold of militarism was a period of constant resistance - and I know there was not one thing I did which did not utterly disgust me...
I have one dream: perhaps there will, after all, be changes, rebellions, perhaps one day international socialism which has lost its backbone will gather strength enough for an open uprising, and then W.II [Kaiser Wilhelm II] and the Crown Prince - it is an absurd dream, no more -...to the slaughterhouse!! (G. Grosz, letter to Robert Bell, in U. M. Schneede, George Grosz, Life and Work, New York, 1979, p. 30)
The major stylistic influences on Grosz during this critical period are that of Expressionism, especially the drawings of Ludwig Meidner, and Futurism, which he had first encountered in Berlin in late 1913, although he later disagreed with the Italians' conception of war as a necessary revolutionary and cleansing ordeal for modern society. During the war years he worked in Berlin and began to publish in the activist arts journal Die Aktion. In 1916, he changed his first name from Georg to George, because of his predilection for America, and altered his family name from Gross to Grosz. He was recalled to active duty in January, 1917 but quickly ended up in a psychiatric hospital. He was discharged from the army as permanently unfit for duty in May.
The time I spent in the stranglehold of militarism was a period of constant resistance - and I know there was not one thing I did which did not utterly disgust me...
I have one dream: perhaps there will, after all, be changes, rebellions, perhaps one day international socialism which has lost its backbone will gather strength enough for an open uprising, and then W.II [Kaiser Wilhelm II] and the Crown Prince - it is an absurd dream, no more -...to the slaughterhouse!! (G. Grosz, letter to Robert Bell, in U. M. Schneede, George Grosz, Life and Work, New York, 1979, p. 30)
The major stylistic influences on Grosz during this critical period are that of Expressionism, especially the drawings of Ludwig Meidner, and Futurism, which he had first encountered in Berlin in late 1913, although he later disagreed with the Italians' conception of war as a necessary revolutionary and cleansing ordeal for modern society. During the war years he worked in Berlin and began to publish in the activist arts journal Die Aktion. In 1916, he changed his first name from Georg to George, because of his predilection for America, and altered his family name from Gross to Grosz. He was recalled to active duty in January, 1917 but quickly ended up in a psychiatric hospital. He was discharged from the army as permanently unfit for duty in May.