Opening March 15 through May 18, 1997, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, will present the exhibition George Grosz, The Berlin Years. Grosz (1893-1959) was one of this century’s great satirists, in the tradition of Hogarth, Goya and Daumier. He began his career as a caricaturist, with a strong bent for social satire. From 1917 to 1920 he was prominent in the berlin Dada group, and from 1920 was a leading esponent of Neue Sachlichkeit. Throughout the 1920’s, while living in Berlin, he combine Modernist formalist techniques with supreme skills as a draftsman and caricaturist to express his disgust with life in post-war Germany. In 1933 he left Nazi Germany for America where he settled for almost the rest of his life, returning to Berlin only shortly before his death in 1959.
The exhibition focuses on Grosz’s art and political activism during his early years in Berlin, the period of his most important contribution to 20th century art. Curator Ralph Jentsch is a well-known expert in German Expressionism, and will bring together, from the Grosz estate and from public and private collections, a representative nucleus of paintings, numerous works on paper, and a selection of pamphlets, books and photographs. Grosz’s Wildwest (1916), wich was auctioned for a world record price ar Christie’s in London in 1966, will be in public display for the first time since its sale. A new book by Ralph Jentch, entitled George Grosz. The Berlin Years, will be published in English, German, Italian and Spanish, to coincide with the exhibition (published by Electa).
The exhibition is being organized in collaboration with the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Madrid, where it will be show May 27 – September 14, 1997.
The Regione Veneto makes an annual grant for the cultural programs of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
The exhibitions of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection are made possible by the support of Intrapresæ Collezione Guggenheim: Aermec, Arclinea, Barbero 1891, Bisazza Mosaico, Cartiere Miliani Fabriano, DLW AG, Gruppo 3M Italia, Gruppo Imation Italia, Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Luciano Marcato, Rex Built-In, Sàfilo Group, Swatch, Wella.