George Grosz, “Twilight” from the Series Ecce Homo (1922)
George Grosz’s series of postwar art was named after a book by Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo (Behold the Man). The “man” to behold was the veteran, opportunistically called a hero by postwar politicians to get their votes but in fact living a grim reality, as Grosz saw it. Surrounded by prosperous businessmen, fashionable women, and strutting military officers, the veteran was pushed to the background, gray and lonely amid the colorful peacetime society. (bpk, Berlin / Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Germany / photo by Kund Petersen / Art Resource, NY / Art © Estate of George Grosz / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.)