MMaxi Madeiraman

George Grosz, Sonnenfinsternis ( Eclipse Of The Sun ) 1926

Although Grosz was a member of the November-gruppe for a short time, the majority of his searing commentaries on Weimar society and its rampant corruption were created outside the group framework.
Like Dix, Grosz had enlisted for military service despite his marked antiwar sentiments.
His experiences soon reconfirmed his horror of combat, and following an honorable discharge in 1915 he began chronicling his abhorrence of Berlin society.
His vocabulary of chaotic scenes of crime and passion, of obscene officers, injured soldiers, and leering prostitutes in dark streets was increased and sharpened by his observations during the war and afterwards.
He created a veritable cascade of paintings, prints, portfolios, illustrated books, and illustrations for radical periodicals, such as Die Aktion.
A painting like Selfbstmord ( Suicide ) probably reflects the artist state of mind following his release from the army.

MMaxi

Metropolis, Georg Grosz ( 1893-1959 )

An Urban Landscape like Metropolis or Explosions almost seems to explode before the viewer's eyes: the city becomes a teeming inferno with leering figures rushing wildly from place to place. Bathed in a red light, Grosz's Berlin is the epitome of the " big city landscape " of second-generacion Expressionism.
Metropolis exemplifies the anarchy of post war Germany.
The scene is Friedrichstrasse, site of the Central Hotel, which Grosz had already depicted in lithographs: beggars, prostitutes, cigar-chomping profiteers, cripples, and convicts intimately glimpsed create a maelstrom of misery and depravity.
This dynamism of the city owes much to the rhytms of Italian Futurism.