The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Street

1919–23

George Grosz

(German, 1893–1959)
Germany, Berlin, 20th century
Photolithograph
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1931.268
© Estate of George Grosz / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Catalogue raisonné: Dückers E66
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Photolithography, the hybrid technique used to make this print, was George Grosz's preferred process and he used it frequently.

Description

In this print, George Grosz lays out the nightmare of postwar Germany: the disabled, homeless soldier panhandling; the overstuffed bourgeois capitalist; the dismal grind of the workers; and the shameless prostitute. This image reveals his satirical—verging on misanthropic—view of German society after the war. He wrote: “The slaughter takes place on the city streets.” Grosz’s approach to printmaking differed from that of many of his contemporaries. He saw it as a means to reproduce his drawings, thus quickly distributing his political and social ideas to the widest possible audience.
  • Catalogue of an exhibition of the art of lithography: commemorating the sesquicentennial of its invention, 1798-1948. [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, November 11, 1948-January 2, 1949. Mentioned: p. 39 archive.org
  • Graphic Discontent: German Expressionism on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 14-May 27, 2018).
    Cross Section: Graphic Art in Germany after the First World War. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 10, 1989-January 7, 1990).
    Urban Vicissitudes. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 2-September 29, 1985).
    Eastward from the Rhine: Romanticism to Abstraction, 1800-1925. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 12-September 9, 1984).
    Promenades, Pageants, Processions, and Pilgrimages. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (August 25, 1981-January 3, 1982).
    German Expressionist Graphics. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 7-October 5, 1980).
    Work of George Grosz. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1949-January 29, 1950).
    The First International Competitive Print Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (March 18-April 15, 1931).
  • {{cite web|title=Street|url=false|author=George Grosz|year=1919–23|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1931.268