This fall David Nolan Gallery is showing select works by George Grosz (1893-1959) in an exhibition entitled George Grosz: Politics and His Influence.

It is an excellent opportunity to revisit the subject of degenerate art, freedom of speech and case law related to the Grosz Estate.

What do we know about Grosz? He was a German artist best known for his caricatures. Not Jewish but clearly working in a style abhorrent to the National Socialists who came to power in 1932, Grosz's works were labeled "degenerate" and removed from German museums. He emigrated to the United States in 1933. In 1995 The Grosz heirs brought a lawsuit against the art dealer Serge Sabarsky, co-founder of the Neue Galerie, for depriving the artist's estate from sale proceeds for Grosz's works. In 2003, Grosz heirs commenced another doomed proceeding, now against the Museum of Modern Art, seeking recovery of three paintings. The case failed due to a statute of limitations and the facts surrounding the circumstances of the paintings' acquisition were never analyzed.

In anticipation of the "See Art, Think Art Law" tour, we learned that the show was made possible in part with assistance from the George Grosz Estate. Joined by works of other artists Grosz drawings are political artifacts. Nolan explains that “[a]rtists have always been involved in depicting the past and predicting the future. They help us question and reconsider darker elements in society, world figures, and nightmares through which we elevate our minds and souls. Grosz, like many other artists, was affected by this imagery, and holds a dominant position in the history of political art through his depictions of the First World War, communism, the Spanish Civil War, and the rise of Adolph Hitler. Using world events as their source material, subsequent artists have continued to address war, politics, and oppression.”

Grosz son has been quoted as saying "You didn't have to be Jewish to be disliked by the Nazis... [George] was an enemy of the state. And that meant he lost his German citizenship. He lost his bank account. They garnished, they took everything."