George Grosz: The Big No

Inspired by the same society that gave rise to Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin stories and novels, the drawings in George Grosz: The Big No present a caustic, comic view of Germany in the troubled years of the Weimar Republic. Ranging from primitive and graffiti-like drawings to complex Futurist street scenes with teeming crowds of overlapping figures, this collection shows Grosz at the height of his satirical powers, through the works from his largest portfolio, Ecce Homo. Pimps, black-marketeers, prostitutes, demobbed soldiers and the nouveau-riche rub shoulders in drawings of razor-sharp acuity and technical precision. Also included are the powerful, anti-militarist Hintergrund drawings, originally published in 1928 to accompany Erwin Piscator’s production of The Good Soldier Schwejk, which resulted in criminal charges being brought against Grosz for “blasphemy and defamation of the German military.” George Grosz: The Big No is an essential guide to one of the twentieth century’s most important satirists.