George Grosz at the Arts Club of Chicago

Coming out of the fertile German arts scene of the early twentieth century, George Grosz was unique even amongst some of the most thoughtful artists of his assumed cohort. Combining some of the ridiculous nature Dada sought impart and social criticism rendered the paintings and drawings Grosz worked up through beginning of the thirties as the most astute observations landed upon canvas.

Associating the name Grosz with grotesque figures - or even Fritz Lang's M - isn't wrong. His work examines people in the process of acting foolish, looking foolish or just being plain creeps. There’re countless examples of Grosz’s work that included debauched looking drunkards, scandalous women and an assortment of seedy looking men – even if they’re dressed rather well.

A bit more sedate is the George Grosz exhibition at the Arts Club of Chicago, the work being displayed here dating from a bit after his hey-day.

During the thirties and throughout the rest of his career, Grosz attempted to incorporate more colorful depictions of what he saw around him. The paintings on display, which include The Painter of the Hole II, maintain a distorted sense of place, space and person, but aren't as immediately disturbing as earlier works.

Not as engaging as earlier work, Grosz during this period appears to have readily imbibed his contemporaries traits and worked to reassemble them with his own style intact. Nothing fails, but again, nothing really reaches the heights of those works from the twenties.

Either way, catching a glimpse of all this still counts as essential viewing for those interested in the trajectory of twentieth century art.