Das ideale Sammlungsmodul

Mustering Memory: George Grosz's Late Montages

“…26 This now consistent interpretation is in tension with the two sole surviving documents in which the artist commented directly on his late montages, letters written to his wife contemporaneous to their production. In the first of these, dated 14 28 This statement reinforces the connection made in the first letter between montage making and the artist's sense of well-being. The manner in which Grosz associated himself with the debilitated Matisse adds to the sense of chronological distance Grosz articulated but also reinforces the therapeutic potential that the artist found in the practice, as he struggled with alcoholism and bouts of inactivity at this stage in his life.…”

“…Another that Grosz's labelling of some of the folders demonstrates that his process was 'scientific or systematic', points which both serve an argument Te Heesen makes concerning the valence of the newspaper clipping in Weimar Germany. 11 In each case, Te Heesen's desire to find continuity in Grosz's practice overrides very straightforward inspection of the objects themselves. The overwhelming majority of the clippings in the archive post-date Grosz's immigration to the USA in 1933.…”

“…12 Finally, Te Heesen tells us that Grosz had two collections; 'one was of material for his art; the other dealt with his work and his person'. 13 Indeed, the archive reveals that Grosz avidly collected published information about himself and used agencies to supply him with his press mentions, which were many. While Te Heesen insists that these two collections were distinct from one another, the printed signature in Frauenaffe im Triumph-Modell is already evidence that this was not always the case and we will see further examples of this later.…”

“…Moreover, when we examine the archival folders for clues concerning the source of the images used in Frauenaffe im Triumph-Modell, we find that they reveal not 'an idiosyncratic and rigid order', as Te Heesen would have it, but competing orders of organization, some of which are less than deducible. 14 For example, it seems that Grosz voraciously collected images of women's underwear, for which he had distinct folders labelled 'SHOES CORSETS BRAS Slips, panties, shoes, handbags, jewels' and 'CORSETS x BRAS x undies, laces, panties'. 15 From these he could easily have selected the image of the model in the corset used in the montage.…”