Carl Grossberg (German, 1894–1940)

Grossberg studied architecture in Aachen and Darmstadt before being drafted into World War I in 1915. After the war, he enrolled at the newly established Bauhaus in Weimar, where he studied printmaking with Lyonel Feininger in 1919 and 1920. Coincident with the landmark Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) exhibition and the publication of Franz Roh’s book Nach Expressionismus (After Expressionism), both of 1925, Grossberg turned to industry and technology as subject matter.

In the early 1930s, he received numerous commissions to render industrial projects from companies such as Berlin’s electric utility (BEWAG); while also establishing an interior design business, where he worked with modern architects such as Erich Mendelsohn and Adolf Meyer. In 1934, the year after the Nazis came to power, Grossberg was the subject of a monographic exhibition at Hanover’s progressive Kestner-Gesellschaft art association. The same year, he contributed a major wall mural on the subject of “industrial landscape” to the important Deutsche Volk—Deutsche Arbeit (German People—German Work) trade fair in Berlin.

Grossberg’s sharp, precise brand of realism was not antithetical to the aesthetics of the Nazi regime, and his work was not included in the notorious Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition of 1937. In 1938, Grossberg was drafted again. In 1940, he died—possibly by suicide—in occupied France following a car accident.

In 2017–2018, Harvard’s Busch-Reisinger Museum presented Carl Grossberg: Works from the Merrill C. Berman Collection, the first monographic presentation of the artist’s work in an American museum. This installation was accompanied by a catalogue by Curatorial Fellow Melissa Venator.

Drawings

Prints (Bewag, Berlin)

 Paintings

 Deaccessioned Works

The works shown here represent only a selection from the collection. Please contact us for further inquiry.