Grosz

George Grosz (1893–1959) was a German fine artist, cartoonist, and teacher who drew from pop culture, was active in the Dada and New Objectivist movements, and was an influence for artists like Ben Shahn. (His antiwar painting, Eclipse from the Sun, would inspire Vietnam protesters.) In this graphic biography, written and drawn by Fiske, angular art lays Kandinsky-like lines over scenes set in anything-goes, post–World War I Berlin: connecting, emphasizing, tracing movement. Curves evoke the fleshy sex of Grosz’s work. (Fiske channels the exuberance and fascination with line that typified Grosz’s work, and more generally early to mid-century art movements.) Symbolically, Fiske uses two colors―red for Berlin, a slash of Grosz’s lipstick, a flash of tie―and green for the jazz and trains of New York, where Grosz would flee from Nazi Germany. Fiske’s thoughtful Grosz is a far cry from the plodding pedantry of the graphic hagiographies that earnestly clutter library shelves; it’s a work of art in its own right.

Lars Fiske (b. 1966 in Oslo, Norway) has been officially publishing his work since the mid-1980s. He is most well known for his books Matje: debutante, Matje-ismen, Kom, sä löper vi!, the latter of which won the Norwegian government’s awards for Book of the Year and Best Picture Book in 2003.  Fiske collaborated with Steffen Kverneland to create Olaf G, a comics biography about cartoonist Olaf Gulbransson; and, Canon, a series of comics books which focus on 19th century German artist Kurt Schwitters. He lives with his wife, the artist Anna Fiske, in Oslo.