George Grosz

(Germany 1893–1959)

Title

Murder in Ackerstrasse

Year

1916-1917

Media category

Materials used

lithograph

Edition

Dückers E 43

Dimensions

42.5 x 33.8cm sheet (irreg.)

Signature & date

Signed and dated l.r. sheet, pencil "GROSZ / 1917".

Credit

Purchased under the terms of the Florence Turner Blake Bequest 1984

Accession number

164.1984

Copyright

Location

Not on display

Further information

The history of Western art is not so empty of violent images as to render this one either surprising or tasteless. Martyrdoms, complete with disembowellings and decapitations, were a mainstay of Christian iconography. Nonetheless, the unflinching George Grosz does shock with this matter-of-fact portrayal of a modern crime of passion. In its very ordinariness of observed detail it is disturbing; as though an alarm clock and a lucky horseshoe had the same weight as a bloodied hatchet and a headless corpse. And where is the victim's head? This, the most crucial detail of all, is missing. Conjecture as to its whereabouts is one of the most unsettling aspects of this gruesome print. The timid murderer and presumptive rapist, aghast only at his own momentary strength, washes his hands in a basin inadequate for such an act of hygiene. Associated with both the Dada and the expressionist movements, Grosz was a vigilant anti-militarist and humanitarian who applied his art like a scalpel to the ills of society. His particular target was the moral corruption of his native country, Germany, in the period between the two world wars.

Art Gallery Handbook, 1999.

Bibliography (6)

Jacqueline Strecker (Australia) (Editor), The Mad Square: Modernity in German Art 1910-37, 2011, 37 (illus.).

Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 89 (illus.).

Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 150 (colour illus.).

Renée Free (Australia) (Author), Modernism 1900-1950 - Prints and Drawings from the Collection, Sydney, 1994. no catalogue numbers

Nicholas Draffin (Australia, b.1943, d.1995) (Author), Prints in Germany 1880-1940, Domain, 1989, 4. no catalogue numbers

Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Five years on: a selection of acquisitions 1981-1986, Sydney, 1986. cat.no. 210

Exhibition history (5)

The edge of the world, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 05 Jul 1985–25 Aug 1985.

Five years on: a selection of acquisitions 1981-1986, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 26 Sep 1986–23 Nov 1986.

Prints in Germany 1880-1940, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 28 Oct 1989–07 Jan 1990.

Modernism 1900-1950 - Prints and Drawings from the Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 23 Jul 1994–25 Sep 1994.

Bauhaus and Expressionism: German prints and drawings from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, New England Regional Art Museum, 04 Mar 2005–15 May 2005.