Bichon's Blows

AT THE JOSEPH BILLIET GALLERY: GEORGE GROSZ
Mr. Pierre Mac Orlan, who wrote the preface to the catalogue, has excellently defined the artist.

"Since the war," writes the author of La Cavalière Elsa, "a sort of social fantasy has been created almost everywhere among all the European peoples who fought. The blood of men has lost its tragic value and the mystery of faces has increased. The social classes which, just ten years ago, had respective traditions that differentiated them, have become mixed up in the new combinations of street lights, in the temporary dishonesty that leads men to the conquest of pleasure achieved as quickly as possible.

One could not better sum up what is contained in the work of Mr. George Grosz. Regarding Mr. Pascin, whose very rare talent I recognize, I have questioned the international quality that Mr. Pierre Mac Orlan granted to the artist. Here, it is not doubtful. What is true of social classes is also true of nations which, forgetting "their respective traditions", yield to "the temporary dishonesty" which leads men to the conquest of money.
The greed which makes individuals act, the lust in which they satisfy themselves, the avarice which consolidates their attitude and the immense stupidity spread everywhere are captured by the artist on the faces and noted with a sure stroke. which degrades them...
Awful pessimism, you will tell me? Pessimism, yes, but why awful? Also there are enough bleating panegyrists of virtue for, from time to time, breaking the chain of praise, a bitter artist, certainly, but not embittered, to endeavor to show one of the faces, this one terrible of the multiple truth.

Louis Léon-Martin.