The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of May 6, 2024
Amalie, Ida, and Set Designs (Studies for Goll's "Methusalem") (verso)
1922
(German, 1893–1959)
Sheet: 52.7 x 38 cm (20 3/4 x 14 15/16 in.)
© Estate of George Grosz / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
George Grosz's interest in mechanization extended to his drawing practice: he used drafting tools, like a straight-edge and compass, to execute works such as this one.Description
Student belongs to a series of drawings George Grosz made for Iwan Goll’s 1921 play Methusalem: The Eternal Bourgeois. This satirical drama pitted a radical student against Methusalem, a bourgeois capitalist. Grosz’s drawing shows the student’s costume; the actor would have spoken from behind a full-size, mask-like shield made from various machine parts and other commonplace objects. The hinged metal head reveals the inner workings of a corrupt or incompetent mind. In Grosz’s characterization, neither the radical student nor the bourgeois capitalist was more righteous than the other. Grosz was an outlier to Expressionism, rejecting the idea of the artist as mystical prophet in favor of the artist as an ordinary worker, an idea inspired by the socialist rhetoric of the day.- Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: P. 246-47, 297; Reproduced: P. 248, cat. no. 104
- Dada Revisited. Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH (organizer) (June 30-September 15, 1978).Tendencies of the Twenties. Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin 19, Germany (August 14, 1977-October 16, 1978); Städelsches Kunstinstitut im Städtischen Kunstinstitut Frankfurt am Main, Franfurt am Main, Germany (November 10, 1977-January 8, 1978).cma 1966; Berlin/Frankfurt 1977-78, 3/51, 3/261, fig. 3/663; London 1978, 94, fig. 4.34; Akron 1978; Boston/Fort Worth 1980-81 [12, 26]; Cleveland 1981, 29, no. 14 (repr.); Madison 1985-86, [3] (repr.), insert; cma 1989-90.
- {{cite web|title=Amalie, Ida, and Set Designs (Studies for Goll's "Methusalem") (verso)|url=false|author=George Grosz|year=1922|access-date=06 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1966.50.b