A life in the newspapers: The American press and George Grosz, 1922 to 1959

The response of the American press to George Grosz, as seen in the clippings in the Grosz archive stored at the Houghton Library and Reading Room, Harvard University, is used to construct an account of the artist's American period. This material is critically compared to published biographies of the artist. The record of Grosz's American period, as recounted in the popular press, reveals a more successful career than has been constructed in the biographies examined. These materials are examined as representative of the response to Grosz and his work in terms of reception theory and analysis. The response to George Grosz is presented as an extension of the biographic descriptions of the artist and as a corrective to the prevailing opinion that his American period was a failure, personally and artistically. An edited transcription of the 668 American press clippings published during Grosz's life and held in the artist's archive is included as an appendix.