The Robbers

The exhibition of approximately thirty German prints executed between the World Wars will highlight the complete portfolio of George Grosz’s 1922 The Robbers. Grosz based his lithographic suite on Friedrich Schiller iconic 1781 play of the same name, yet when Grosz depicted the canonical story he situated the action in the tumultuous climate of early 1920s Berlin. With figures culled from the modern era, Grosz’s imagery suggests the vast social discord where the traumatic effects of the mechanized war, greed, industry, and poverty intersected to undermine national stability in the young Weimar Republic.

In addition to the Grosz’s Robbers portfolios, the exhibition will also include provocative artworks, by printmakers including Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Käthe Kollvitz. These works, many of which are gifts to the PMA from David and Eva Bradford, add context to Grosz’s social and artistic expression and are equally probing in their evaluation of German society and national identity.

This exhibition, opening in the centenary year of the end of World War I, turns our attention away from the conflict itself and towards the aftermath that defined the next two decades. History, politics, art, and national identity will intersect and provoke questions about who we are and what we value in ways that are as pertinent today as they were a century ago. 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.