Exhibition dates: 15th January – 19th March 2016
While the photographs of the bridge, rigging and pastimes aboard the twin-screw turbine steamer New York are the most avant-garde and successful (in terms of composition, light and pictorial space) in this posting, it is very interesting to observe how a German immigrant artist viewed New York through the lens of a Leica camera upon his arrival.
These photographs could be seen as typical tourist snapshots but there is a certain vivacity (don’t you just love that word, vivacity – viva/city) and angular disposition about them that raises them above the status of snapshots. Grosz captures the spatial abstractness, intensity and excitement of the metropolis in displaced beats and accents – the sense of the buildings closing in looking uptown on 42nd street, or the flashing of bodies frozen in perpetual motion.
These images are precursors to the work of other great immigrant photographers who made the journey to America – the Hungarian André Kertész in 1936 and, later, the Swiss Robert Frank in 1947. Even though these latter photographers have a completely different style to Grosz, all three artists cast their dispassionate eye over American culture. They view it from the standpoint of an outsider, reinterpreting what they see from a different point of view.
Marcus
Please note: I have added the postcard of the steamer SS New York, the photograph of the boxer Max Schmeling and the paintings by George Grosz to give some social, historical and artistic context to the photographs in the exhibition. These works are NOT included in the exhibition.
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Many thankx to the Akim Monet Side by Side Gallery for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
“After his emigration to the USA in 1933, Grosz “sharply rejected [his] previous work, and caricature in general.” In place of his earlier corrosive vision of the city, he now painted conventional nudes and many landscape watercolors. More acerbic works, such as Cain, or Hitler in Hell (1944), were the exception. In his autobiography, he wrote: “A great deal that had become frozen within me in Germany melted here in America and I rediscovered my old yearning for painting. I carefully and deliberately destroyed a part of my past.” Although a softening of his style had been apparent since the late 1920s, Grosz’s work assumed a more sentimental tone in America, a change generally seen as a decline.”
Text from the Wikipedia website
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George Grosz
Zeitvertreib an Bord der “New York”
Pastime on board the “New York”
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
“Akim Monet Side by Side Gallery presents a selection of 60 photographs by George Grosz taken in 1932 in partnership with Ralph Jentsch, director of the George Grosz Estate.
George Grosz is well known for his painting and drawing. The DADA MARSHAL, the moralist and angry observer, whose obsessive eye misses nothing and whose cutting, razor-sharp line, records the dangers and problems of his time like no other.
Lesser known is George Grosz the photographer, who in 1932, during his first voyage to America, took camera in hand and in just a few days shot almost 200 multi-layered photos. Right before his departure for America to accept a teaching position, George Grosz bought his first camera in Berlin especially for this trip. With it he started to take photographs during the Atlantic crossing on a ship tellingly called the New York. He chose specific subject matter with a clear emphasis on angles. Behind the viewfinder of the objective camera, finding the right crop became for him a fascinating, creative moment.
His photography profoundly changed after his arrival. In New York, instead of structured stills, his photography was dominated by dynamic movement. In rapid shots taken from moving double-decker buses or in sequences of moving subjects, George Grosz captured the restless metropolis that fascinated him, as if he wanted to imitate cinema with these syncopated images. Chance and detail take the place of balanced composition. The whole, pulsating life of New York is seen through the eyes of the artist.
Text after: Jentsch, Ralph, George Grosz. Eye of the Artist, Photographs New York 1932, Weingarten, 2002.”
Press release from the Akim Monet Side by Side Gallery
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Anonymous photographer
Knackstedt & Co (publisher)
SS New York (front and verso)
After 1926
Postcard
The Twin-Screw Turbine Steamer “New York”
Measurement: 21,500 tons gross • Length 633 ft. • Beam 79 ft. • Depth 56 ft. 5
Builders: Messrs. Blohm 6- Voss, of Hamburg (1926/27)
New York, the city after which the Hamburg-America Line (HAPAG) steamer “New York” was christened by the Lady Mayoress of the American metropolis on the occasion of her being launched in Hamburg on October 20, 1926. USA service, 1941 transferred to Deutsche Amerika Line, 1945 bombed at Kiel and capsized.
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George Grosz
Sendemast und Takelage der “New York”
Transmitter and rigging of the “New York”
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
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George Grosz
Die Brücke der “New York”
The bridge of the “New York”
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
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George Grosz
Lower Manhattan
c. 1934
Oil on cardboard
18 x 24 (45.7 x 61 cm)
Gift of Dalzell Hatfield
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George Grosz
Im Doppeldeckerbus auf der 5th Avenue, Höhe 48th Street, mit der Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas rechts
Aboard a double-decker on 5th Avenue at 48th street, with on the right the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
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George Grosz
Im Doppeldeckerbus Downtown 5th Avenue, mit Blick Uptown auf die 42th Street
Aboard a double-decker downtown on 5th Avenue looking uptown on 42nd street
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
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George Grosz
Herald Square
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
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George Grosz (1893-1959)
Street Scene
1925
Oil on canvas
81.3 × 61.3 cm
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George Grosz
Eingang zur Subway Station 5th Avenue am Flat Iron Building
Entrance of the Subway Station at 5th Avenue and the Flat Iron Building
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
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George Grosz
Max Schmeling beim Schauboxen in Kingston, 5. Juni 1932
Max Schmeling at a boxing exhibition game in Kingston, 5th of June 1932
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
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Unknown photographer
Max Schmeling (German, 1905-2005)
“The Black Uhlan”
Heavyweight Champion
1930-1932
“Maximillian Adolph Otto Siegfried “Max” Schmeling (September 28, 1905 – February 2, 2005) was a German boxer who was heavyweight champion of the world between 1930 and 1932. His two fights with Joe Louis in 1936 and 1938 were worldwide cultural events because of their national associations.
Starting his professional career in 1924, Schmeling came to the United States in 1928 and, after a ninth-round technical knockout of Johnny Risko, became a sensation. He became the first to win the heavyweight championship (at that time vacant) by disqualification in 1930, after opponent Jack Sharkey knocked him down with a low blow in the fourth round. Max retained his crown successfully in 1931 by a TKO victory over Young Stribling. A rematch in 1932 with Sharkey saw the American gaining the title from Schmeling by a controversial fifteen-round split decision. In 1933, Schmeling lost to Max Baer by a tenth-round TKO. The loss left people believing that Schmeling was past his prime. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party took over control in Germany, and Schmeling came to be viewed as a ‘Nazi puppet.’
In 1936, Schmeling knocked out American rising star Joe Louis, placing him as the number one contender for Jim Braddock’s title, but Louis got the fight and knocked Braddock out to win the championship in 1937. Schmeling finally got a chance to regain his title in 1938, but Louis knocked him out in one round. During World War II, Schmeling served with the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) as an elite paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger). After the war, Schmeling mounted a comeback, but retired permanently in 1948.
After retiring from boxing, Schmeling worked for The Coca-Cola Company. Schmeling became friends with Louis, and their friendship lasted until the latter’s death in 1981. Schmeling died in 2005 aged 99, a sporting icon in his native Germany. Long after the Second World War, it was revealed that Schmeling had risked his own life to save the lives of two Jewish children in 1938.”
Text from the Wikipedia website
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George Grosz
Sonntag in Manhattan
Sunday in Manhattan
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
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George Grosz
New York street scene
c. 1930s
Watercolour
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George Grosz
Madison Avenue
New York, 1932
© George Grosz Estate
Akim Monet Side by Side Gallery
Potsdamer Strasse 81b
10785 Berlin
Opening hours:
Wednesday – Saturday 12 – 6pm
Akim Monet Side by Side Gallery website
Filed under: American, black and white photography, documentary photography, exhibition, existence, gallery website, light, memory, New York, painting, photographic series, photography, postcards, psychological, quotation, reality, space, street photography, time, works on paper Tagged: 1930s, 1930s avant-garde, 1930s New York, 1932: Rare Photographs by George Grosz, Aboard a double-decker downtown on 5th Avenu, Aboard a double-decker on 5th Avenue at 48th street, avant-garde, black and white photography, Die Brücke der "New York", documentary photography, Eingang zur Subway Station 5th Avenue, Entrance of the Subway Station at 5th Avenue, George Grosz, George Grosz Aboard a double-decker downtown on 5th Avenu, George Grosz Aboard a double-decker on 5th Avenue at 48th street, George Grosz Die Brücke der "New York", George Grosz Eingang zur Subway Station 5th Avenue, George Grosz Entrance of the Subway Station at 5th Avenue, George Grosz Herald Square, George Grosz Im Doppeldeckerbus auf der 5th Avenue, George Grosz Im Doppeldeckerbus Downtown 5th Avenue, George Grosz Lower Manhattan, George Grosz Madison Avenue, George Grosz Max Schmeling at a boxing exhibition game in Kingston, George Grosz Max Schmeling beim Schauboxen in Kingston, George Grosz New York, George Grosz New York street scene, George Grosz Pastime on board the "New York", George Grosz photographer, George Grosz photography, George Grosz Sendemast und Takelage der "New York", George Grosz Sonntag in Manhattan, George Grosz Street Scene, George Grosz Sunday in Manhattan, George Grosz The bridge of the "New York", George Grosz the photographer, George Grosz Transmitter and rigging of the "New York", George Grosz Zeitvertreib an Bord der "New York", German art, German artist, Hamburg-America Line, HAPAG, Herald Square, Im Doppeldeckerbus auf der 5th Avenue, Im Doppeldeckerbus Downtown 5th Avenue, Knackstedt & Co, Lower Manhattan, Madison Avenue, Max Schmeling, Max Schmeling at a boxing exhibition game in Kingston, Max Schmeling beim Schauboxen in Kingston, New York, paintings of New York, Pastime on board the "New York", photographs of New York, Rare Photographs by George Grosz, Sendemast und Takelage der "New York", social documentary, social documentary photography, SS New York, SS New York 1926, street photography, Sunday in Manhattan, The Black Uhlan, The bridge of the "New York", The Twin-Screw Turbine Steamer "New York", Transmitter and rigging of the "New York", Zeitvertreib an Bord der "New York" Image may be NSFW.
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