{"data":{"id":"540","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":540,"topgoose_id":2119,"tms_id":540,"display_name":"George Grosz","sort_name":"Grosz George","display_date":"1893–1959","begin_date":"1893","end_date":"1959","biography":"\u003cp\u003eA cofounder of the Berlin Dada movement,\nGeorge Grosz is primarily known for his work\nof the 1910s and 1920s, which was motivated\nby a deep moral commitment to politically\nengaged art. In drawings, paintings, and\nprinted cartoons, he aimed biting satire at\nGerman political classes and bourgeois\nsociety, and energetically charted Berlin’s\nsinister underground. Featured centrally\nin the Nazis’ \u003cem\u003eDegenerate Art \u003c/em\u003eexhibition in\n1937, and stripped of his German citizenship\nin 1938, Grosz watched the Second World\nWar unfold from the United States, to\nwhich he had immigrated in 1933.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy 1946, when he began the series\nof watercolors that includes\u003ca href=\"/collection/works/1835\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;The Painter of\nthe Hole\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e,\u003c/em\u003e Grosz’s style and attitude had\nchanged considerably. He described\nthe protagonists of the series in a letter to\nBertolt Brecht: “They consist of thin but\nfirm strokes. They cast no shadow, and are\nthemselves completely grey . . . because\neverything is grey there.” The lanky artist\nof\u003cem\u003e\u0026nbsp;The Painter of the Hole\u003c/em\u003e sits among\nthe ruins of the city that in Grosz’s earlier\nworks had teemed with chaotic life. The\ndestruction of the city is the setting for a\nmore profound sense of loss, however, and\nthe work is as much about art as it is\nabout the physical devastations of war:\nwhere once Grosz had been convinced of\nthe political and social potential of art,\n\u003cem\u003eThe Painter of the Hole \u003c/em\u003eexpresses a weary\ndisillusionment with painting. Despite the\nnumerous attempts piled around his feet, all\nthat the painter can produce is a void in the\ncenter of the canvas; its status as garbage is\nconfirmed by the rat nibbling at its corner.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500014558","wikidata_id":"Q107194","created_at":"2017-08-30T17:01:01.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-12T07:04:31.431-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/540/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/540/exhibitions"}}}}