This square-shaped painting depicts an interior with dark green walls. A man falls backwards, arms outstretched, with an empty bottle of liquor tipping over in front of him. His face is red, and the outline of his round head and angular clothing glows as if he is being electrocuted. The world outside the window in the upper left corner is reddish-black, and through the window in the upper right an eerie red crescent moon and the profile of a suspicious-looking man can be seen. To their left is a red lightning-like shape. In the lower right, the figure of Death suddenly appears from under the floor. Wearing a silk hat and tuxedo and puffing on a cigarette through a holder, the figure resembles a costume that George Grosz himself once wore to a Dada event. In November 1918, when this painting was made, Berlin was in a state of turmoil brought on by defeat in World War I, revolution, and the collapse of the German Empire. Death, who reigns in this city of evil characterized by naked ambition and violence, also appears in the novels of Edgar Allan Poe, which the artist enjoyed reading.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)
This square-shaped painting depicts an interior with dark green walls. A man falls backwards, arms outstretched, with an empty bottle of liquor tipping over in front of him. His face is red, and the outline of his round head and angular clothing glows as if he is being electrocuted. The world outside the window in the upper left corner is reddish-black, and through the window in the upper right an eerie red crescent moon and the profile of a suspicious-looking man can be seen. To their left is a red lightning-like shape. In the lower right, the figure of Death suddenly appears from under the floor. Wearing a silk hat and tuxedo and puffing on a cigarette through a holder, the figure resembles a costume that George Grosz himself once wore to a Dada event. In November 1918, when this painting was made, Berlin was in a state of turmoil brought on by defeat in World War I, revolution, and the collapse of the German Empire. Death, who reigns in this city of evil characterized by naked ambition and violence, also appears in the novels of Edgar Allan Poe, which the artist enjoyed reading.
(NAKAMURA Naoaki)