George Grosz

In this work, Grosz combined traditional, delicately hued watercolor with printed reproductions pasted in an unreal space that was inspired by the work of the Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico. These pictorial devices convey the satirical ideology that Grosz shared with his subject, John Heartfield, a friend and fellow Berlin Dada artist with whom he frequently collaborated. Heartfield is depicted as bald and grim-faced, with clenched fists and a machine for a heart—the personification of the politically defiant antiauthoritarian, which was the stance Heartfield took in his own art.

His uniform and the drab walls and floor suggest a prisoner in his cell, and the segmented view of a building in the distance, as if glimpsed through a narrow window, bears the mordant inscription “Lots of luck in your new home.” The mechanical device indicates Heartfield’s identity as an engineer or constructor (monteur) of photomontages, collages made with cut-and-pasted photographs. In fact, Heartfield called himself a monteur-dada rather than an artist, and he intended his assembled images for mass reproduction only, in magazines and on book covers and posters.

In this work Grosz depicts John Heartfield, a friend, collaborator, and fellow artist involved in Berlin Dada, a politically engaged artistic movement that formed after World War I and was characterized by satire, provocation, and critical social commentary. The portrait combines delicately hued watercolors with printed images and represents Heartfield as bald and grim-faced, with clenched fists and a machine for a heart. The mechanical device indicates his identity as a constructor (monteur) of photomontages, collages made with cut-and-pasted photographs. Heartfield called himself a monteur-dada rather than an artist, and he intended his assembled images for mass reproduction only, in magazines and on book covers and posters.

This work is included in the Provenance Research Project, which investigates the ownership history of works in MoMA's collection.

Dr. Hermann Post, Berlin, then New York. Purchased from Grosz in Berlin in 1920 - at least until 1934 in New York
A. Conger Goodyear, New York. [Purchased from Hermann Post,] by 1936 – 1952
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of A. Conger Goodyear, October 1952

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