Hans Grundig (February 19, 1901 – September 11, 1958) was a German painter and graphic artist associated with the

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, wh ...

movement. He was born in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

and, after an apprenticeship as an interior decorator, studied in 1920–1921 at the Dresden School of Arts and Crafts. He then studied at the Dresden Academy from 1922 to 1923. During the 1920s his paintings, primarily portraits of working-class subjects, were influenced by the work of

Otto Dix Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along with George ...

. Like his friend Gert Heinrich Wollheim, he often depicted himself in a theatrical manner, as in his ''Self-Portrait during the Carnival Season'' (1930). He had his first solo exhibition in 1930 at the Dresden gallery of

Józef Sandel Józef Sandel (Yiddish: יוסף סאנדעל; German: Josef Sandel; 29 September 1894, Kolomea – 1 December 1962, Warsaw)Elis, Binyamin (1965). "Sandel, Yosef." ''Leksikon fun der nayer yiddisher literatur''. New York: Congress for Jewish C ...

.Grundig, Hans
(1996). ''Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ/DDR''. Munich: Saur. vol. 1. p. 254. He made his first

etching Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...

s in 1933. Politically anti-fascist, he joined the German Communist Party in 1926, and was a founding member of the arts organization '' Assoziation revolutionärer bildender Künstler'' in Dresden in 1929. Following the fall of the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

, Grundig was declared a

degenerate art Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

ist by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

s, who included his works in the defamatory ''Degenerate Art'' exhibition in Munich in 1937. He expressed his antagonism toward the regime in paintings such as ''The Thousand Year Reich'' (1936). Forbidden to practice his profession, he was arrested twice—briefly in 1936, and again in 1938, after which he was interned in

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoner ...

from 1940 to 1944. In 1945 he went to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

, where he attended an anti-fascist school. Returning to Berlin in 1946, he became a professor of painting at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. In 1957 he published his autobiography, ''Zwischen Karneval und Aschermittwoch'' ("Between Shrovetide carnival and Ash Wednesday"). He was awarded the Heinrich Mann Prize in Berlin in 1958, the year of his death.

Notes

References

*Michalski, Sergiusz (1994). ''New Objectivity''. Cologne: Benedikt Taschen. 1901 births 1958 deaths Artists from Dresden People from the Kingdom of Saxony Communist Party of Germany members 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany Heinrich Mann Prize winners {{Germany-painter-stub

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