George Grosz (1893-1959)
Lot 1094 Property from an Important New York Collection

George Grosz (1893-1959)

They Found Something

Closed13 November 2015

Price Realised

USD 50,000

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George Grosz (1893-1959)
They Found Something
signed 'Grosz' (lower right)
watercolor on paper
19 5/8 x 15 3/8 in. (50 x 39.1 cm.)
Painted in 1946

Vera Lazuk Gallery, Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
Acquired from the above by the present owner, circa 1970.

Specialist note

Ralph Jentsch has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

The present work depicts four skeletal stick figures in an apocalyptic, uninhabitable landscape. In their hands, they hold shredded remains of flags and measly attempts at weaponry. Flames burst out of their eyes as they look to an area outside the composition, the figure in the back pointing to their next target. All around them, bands of stick figures rumble and brawl. In this devastated world, time and meaning have become obsolete. Ralph Jentsch has written of this motif, “The invention of the stick men in 1946 is the consequent development of the artist whose hope, that the world would become a better place after the end of World War II, was bitterly disappointed by the beginning of an even larger threat, the Cold War.”