Central Park at Night

George GroszWW-1936-130852

1936·Watercolor, with gouache and touches of pen and black ink, selectively gum varnished, on ivory wove paper·50.6 × 35.5 cm (19 15/16 × 14 in.)

<p>Fearing escalating Nazi antagonism in his native Germany, George Grosz took a job teaching drawing in New York in 1932, and by 1933 he had become a permanent resident. Although he was at first overwhelmed by the size and pace of New York, he later confessed that it had an immediate effect on his art. His work became less overtly political, and he experienced “a continual shifting from hard and sharp lines to soft colours and gracious contours.” He sketched the people and sights of the city almost continually, turning these spontaneous drawings into more finished works in his studio.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1936
Medium: Watercolor, with gouache and touches of pen and black ink, selectively gum varnished, on ivory wove paper
Dimensions: 50.6 × 35.5 cm (19 15/16 × 14 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: George Grosz

Artist

George Grosz

Painting

George Grosz was a German artist known especially for his caricatural drawings and paintings of Berlin life in the 1920s. He was a prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity groups during the Weimar Republic. He emigrated to the United States in 1933, and became a naturalized citizen in 1938. Abandoning the style and subject matter of his earlier work, he exhibited regularly and taught for many years at the Art Students League of New York. In 1959 he returned to Berlin, where he died shortly afterwards.

Berlin, Germany

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