The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (208 page)

(1893–1959).
German-born painter and draughtsman who became an American citizen in 1938. He began as a
caricaturist
with a strong feeling for social satire and through his drawings he expressed his disgust at the depravity of the Prussian military caste. During the First World War he twice served in the German army and each time was discharged as being unfit for service. In 1917, with
Heartfield
, he Anglicized his name (he was born Georg Groß) as a protest against the hatred being whipped up against the enemy. The most famous of the satirical anti-war illustrations he made at this time is the drawing
Fit for Active Service
(MOMA, New York, 1918), in which a fat, complacent doctor pronounces a skeleton fit for duty. From 1917 to 1920 he was prominent among the Berlin
Dada
group and during the 1920s, while still working on Dadaist
montages
, he became, with
Dix
, the leading exponent of the
Neue Sachlichkeit
. His collections of drawings
The Face of the Ruling Class
(1921) and
Ecce Homo
(1927) earned him an international reputation. In these and in his paintings he ruthlessly denounced a decaying society in which gluttony and depraved sensuality are placed beside poverty and disease; prostitutes and profiteers were frequently among his cast of characters. Grosz was prosecuted several times for obscenity and blasphemy, and in 1933, despairing at the political situation in Germany, he moved to America to take up the offer of a teaching post at the
Art Students League of New York
. In America his satirical manner was largely abandoned for more romantic landscapes and still lifes with from time to time apocalyptic visions of a nightmare future. Although he won several honours in the last decade of his life, he regarded himself as a failure because he was unable to win recognition as a serious painter rather than a brilliant satirist, and he painted several self-portraits showing how isolated and depressed he was in his adopted country (
The Wanderer
, Memorial Art Gallery, the University of Rochester, New York, 1943). He returned to Berlin in 1959, saying ‘my American dream turned out to be a soap bubble’, and died there shortly after his arrival following a fall down a flight of stairs.

 
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grotesque
.

A term originally used in the visual arts to describe a type of fanciful wall decoration (painted, carved, or moulded in
stucco
) characterized by the use of interlinked floral motifs, animal and human figures, masks, etc. It was derived from the ornament found in certain Roman buildings (called
grotte
), and in the 16th century it spread from Italy to most of the countries of Europe. In France the word ‘grotesque’ was applied to literature and even people fairly early in the 17th cent., and later in the same century this meaning spread to England, and the word began to assume its current sense, suggesting the ridiculous, absurd, monstrous, or abnormal.

 
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ground
.

The surface or
support
on which a painting or drawing is executed, for example the paper on which a
watercolour
is done or the plaster under a
fresco
; or, more specifically, the prepared surface on which the colours are laid and which is applied to the panel, canvas, or other support before the picture is begun. The purpose of the ground in the second, more technical, sense is to isolate the paint from the support so as to prevent chemical interaction, to render the support less absorbent, to provide a satisfactory surface for painting or drawing on, and to heighten the brilliance of the colours.
Gesso
is the ground that occurs most often in the literature of art history. In
etching
the ground is the acid-resisting mixture which is spread over the plate before work is begun.

 
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Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel
(GRAV).

An association of artists formed in Paris in 1960, the main purpose of which was to research into the aesthetic manipulation of light and movement (see
KINETIC ART
). The members, who included Julio
Le Parc
and
Vasarely's
son Yvaral, adopted a scientific approach and investigated the use of modern industrial materials for artistic purposes. In common with other contemporary groups they made it one of their aims to produce works of art which called for closer collaboration on the part of the observer and they often worked together on anonymous group projects. The group disbanded in 1968.

 
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Group of Seven
.

Group of 20th-cent. Canadian painters, based in Toronto, who found their main inspiration in the landscape of northern Ontario and created the first major national movement in Canadian art. The group was officially established in 1920, when it held its first exhibition in the Art Gallery of Toronto, the seven painters involved being Franklin Carmichael (1890–1945), Lawren
Harris
, A. Y.
Jackson
, Frank Johnston (1888–1949), Arthur Lismer (1885–1969), J. E. H. MacDonald (1873–1932), and Frederick Varley (1881–1969). Some members of the group had, however, been working together since 1913, and Tom
Thomson
, who was one of the early leaders, had died in 1917. Other artists joined after the 1920 exhibition. The members made group sketching expeditions and worked in an
Expressionist
style characterized by brilliant colour and bold brushwork. After initial critical abuse, they won public favour. The last group exhibition was held in 1931 and two years later the name was changed to the
Canadian Group of Painters
; thereafter the members worked more as individuals and developed separately.

 
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