August image of the month: Interrogation
Posted by admin | 3rd August 2012
A closer look at Interrogation by George Grosz (1893-1959).
Medium: Ink and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: 46 x 59 cm
Date: c. 1936–38
August’s image of the month is selected by one of Ben Uri’s former interns, Amanda Carmargo. She describes the work as “bluntly projecting the brutality of the Nazi regime in caricature.”
Grosz's painting captures the horrors of WWII, in what is a detailed, evocative watercolour of a horrific scene of Nazi soldiers torturing a man.
Painted in a free, illustrative style, Interrogation shows off Grosz’s skilful use of the medium and his flair for capturing the moment. The work is one of only three known fully executed watercolours on this subject, which was painted following Grosz’s emigration to the USA in 1933. In this important but deeply disturbing example the artist shows the brutality exactly as he understood it.
George Grosz is renowned for challenging the politically corrupt regime and the decadence in Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s through his sardonic and cutting satirical compositions. He was a modern day pioneer of using almost graffiti like illustrations to challenge the establishment. Though not Jewish, Grosz correctly feared for his life and fled Nazi Germany in 1933; soon after his arrival in New York his work was declared ‘degenerate’ in Germany.
Ben Uri's exhibition on Dodo
Interrogation is being displayed as part of Ben Uri’s current exhibition on Berlin artist Dodo, The Inspiration of Decadence: Dodo rediscovered, whose works from the late 1920s on fashion and decadence is in stark contrast to the scene of torture depicted by Grosz just a few years later.
Including Grosz's work in the exhibition is a powerful visual punch, highlighting the dramatic change that would see Dodo’s Berlin of cocktail glamour replaced by the harsh brutalities of war. Like Grosz, Dodo was one of many émigrés who fled Nazi Germany.
It was this contrast, says Amanda, which drew her to Grosz’s work: “For me, the addition of Interrogation in the Dodo exhibition gives the exhibition a wider and truly essential perspective of the brutality of the era that Dodo comes from. It helps to establish the greater social context during this period.
“I feel that Interrogation poignantly presents a starkly aesthetic and figurative contrast to other surrounding beautiful artworks that were distinctly inspired by the sentiment of 1920’s European extravagance.”
Where to see Grosz in the UK
Grosz’s oeuvre is greatly under-represented in UK public collections, with only 18 examples of his work available for public view. Aside from illustrated publications, only six of these works are housed in London museums:
- British Museum (one print)
- V&A (one print)
- Tate (four original works on paper from 1916, 1919, 1925 and 1930)
- Imperial War Museum (three prints)
Sarah MacDougall, the art museum’s Head of Collections said: “This work adds significantly not just to Ben Uri’s holding of ‘war time’ works but also to that available by Grosz to London audiences. It is revealing and telling to have Grosz’s inscription at the bottom of the work: “un kannste uns ma wat komisches vortanzen Jenosse, det haste doch so scheen in Moskau jelernt” (Berlin dialect), translated where he wrote “And, can’t you dance something entertaining for us comrade, you learned this so beautifully in Moscow, indeed.”
Interrogation (1936-38) was purchased for Ben Uri in 2010 with vital help from membership charity the Art Fund, which led the campaign along with crucial support from the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Montgomery Gallery in San Francisco and private donors.
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