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©
Estate of Georg Grosz, Princeton, New Jersey / VEGAP
George Grosz

Street Scene (Kurfürstendamm)

1925
Oil on canvas.
81.3 x 61.3 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
572
(
1981.69
)
Room 45
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 19th Century. The Impressionist Period 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 54 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 55 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku 56 Postpop rooms: Ayako Rokakku Rodin Exhibition room • Rooms Post-Pop

Halfway through the 1920s George Grosz’s gradual evolution towards more realist forms brought him close to Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), the movement springing from the legendary programmatic exhibition by the same name, which was organized by the active director of the Kunsthalle Mannheim, Gustav Hartlaub, and defined a whole era. The show, which brought together a heterogeneous group of German artists with a common interest in breaking with Expressionism through a new objective figuration, was in keeping with the widespread tendency of a return to order in Europe of the 1920s, but unlike in other countries, in Germany it manifested itself as a spirit of fierce social denunciation.

For Germany, the war had resulted in a toll of five million dead and a million mutilated, and affected the vast majority of German society. Following the military defeat and abdication of Wilhelm II, Berlin continued to be the capital of the newly created Republic established by the Weimar constitution of 1920.Whereas during the early days of the Great War the streets of Berlin had filled with young people extolling the virtues of war, which they viewed as a purifying sacrifice, four years later it was a very different sight. The German capital became a place of political struggle, street skirmishes and social unrest triggered by poverty and soaring inflation.

It is only logical that these years of political and moral revolution, great frustrations and great hopes should have kindled a heightened critical spirit and a new conception of art as a political weapon. Like many of his contemporaries, George Grosz translated the internal breakdown of German society into art with biting sarcasm and, like Daumier and Hogarth before him, created a sort of mercilessly enacted human comedy. The modern metropolis became a recurring theme in his work and, in the manner of a modern Bosch with a mordant critical tone and keen sense of observation, he depicted the surrounding environment with a moralising intention in order to show the hypocrisy of bourgeois life and the depravity concealed behind its outward appearance of respectability.

The present Street Scene, dated February 1925, is a good example of Grosz’s new objective painting and of his permanent rebellion against the unjust social order and the hypocrisy and vulgarity of the urban middle class. This depiction of the centrally-located Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, in which the glamour of the wealthy classes contrasts with the poverty of the homeless, immigrants and numerous war cripples, recalls the description given by Alfred Döblin in Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929), which tells the story of Franz Biberkopf, an ordinary citizen who tries to make his way in a society dominated by unemployment, violence and unfulfilled promises; and also that of the plays of Bertolt Brecht, with their lurid images of modern life, of the “dull lives” of those who attempt to wade through the “jungle of cities.”

The work remained in the artist’s possession until 1938, when it was acquired by Erich Cohn, a German who had sought refuge in America and one of the first collectors to purchase works by Grosz after the artist fled Germany in 1933. Years later it passed to the Munich collector Hans Grote, whose collection, including important works by Grosz, Beckmann, Kirchner and Müller, was sold by the Galerie Thomas in Munich in 1981 with the fictitious name of “Sammlung Rheingarten.” It was then that Street Scene was acquired by Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Paloma Alarcó

20th Centurys. XX - Pintura europea. Nuevo ordenPaintingOilcanvas
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Street Scene (Kurfürstendamm)

Street Scene (Kurfürstendamm)

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Los impresionistas y la fotografía. Exhibition catalogue. Spanish Hard Cover

Los impresionistas y la fotografía. Exhibition catalogue. Spanish Hard Cover

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Catalogue Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Modern Painting (English)

Catalogue Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Modern Painting (English)

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Catalog Walid Raad: Cotton Under My Feet (English)

Catalog Walid Raad: Cotton Under My Feet (English)

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Street Scene (Kurfürstendamm). Escena callejera (Kurfürstendamm), 1925
Street Scene (Kurfürstendamm)
George Grosz

©

Estate of Georg Grosz, Princeton, New Jersey / VEGAP

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The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundacion Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes and non-commercial uses.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the images set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from VEGAP (www.vegap.es), or from the corresponding collective management organization in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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Street Scene (Kurfürstendamm). Escena callejera (Kurfürstendamm), 1925
Street Scene (Kurfürstendamm)
George Grosz

©

Estate of Georg Grosz, Princeton, New Jersey / VEGAP

Terms of Use

The Photo Library of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Photo Library by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from  VEGAP (Visual Entidad de Gestión de Artistas Plásticos www.vegap.es) or from the corresponding collective management organizations in the country where the work is going to be used or, where appropriate, from the holder of their rights in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

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