JaZzArt en València

George Grosz, Berlin (1893–1959): Painter, caricaturist, and key figure of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity movements. He studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and later in Berlin. Grosz became known for his biting, satirical depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic, often exposing the corruption, decadence, and brutality of the bourgeoisie, military, and ruling classes. His sharp line drawings and grotesque caricatures conveyed both anger and dark humor, making him one of the fiercest social critics of his time.

In 1932, as the Nazis gained power, Grosz emigrated to the United States, where he taught at the Art Students League in New York. His later work moved away from biting satire toward more romantic and expressive styles, though he remained deeply engaged with political and humanist themes. Grosz died in 1959 in West Berlin, leaving behind a legacy as one of the most incisive visual chroniclers of modern German history.

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CHEERS

Otto Dix: German Expressionist Artist

Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (1891–1969) Born in Gera, skilled as a painter and printmaker, is an artist closely associated with the Expressionist and later New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) movements. His paintings depict the raw reality of war, social decay, and the fragility of human existence in the 20th century.

He studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. He started out by experimenting with Expressionism and Dada, and was influenced by artist George Grosz, among others. His service as a soldier during World War I deeply marked him and became the central theme of much of his later work.

His experiences fighting the war inspired paintings that depicted the brutality and devastation caused by war and is clearly seen in his etching «Der Krieg» from 1924… To highlight the moral collapse and inequalities of the post-war society he painted portraits of veteran, prostitutes and the urban poor. His work, which blended the emotional intensity of expressionism and the classical technique of the old masters, created an unsettling realism.

During the Third Reich, his work was labelled “degenerate art”. He was dismissed from his teaching position and forbidden from exhibiting.. After World War II, Dix was honoured, and recognized as one of the foremost German painters of the 20th century, remembered especially for his uncompromising examination of war and its aftermath. His work will stand, as he will as an artist, for their avant-garde intensity and technique. And this combination has ensured his enduring place in modern European art.

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CHEERS

Francisco is conversing with Bodo Vespaciano…

You want to talk about art?

No, I want to ask questions…

The more we talk about art, the more the questions…

Why are there so many questions? Is it because people want to know what art is? So tell me…

There is abstract art. And now you will ask what is abstract art? There is figurative art. And you’ll ask what is figurative art?

What the feck is art? Come on man, you know what it is…

Is there a message in your art? Are your paintings a language?

Hell no! No message at all! Who the hell would want to send a message!

My paintings are to be pleasing to the eye.

And mine are a complete mystery, to me…

(All photographs by and property of Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved/C.2025)

CHEERS

SULPHUR BREATH AND NICOTINE

Sulphur breath and nicotine

No more water, no more beer,

The snake you wrap around your neck

Has kissed you,

Two times,

One kiss per cheek,

A little growl

And you grab your keychain from the rain clouds

That blew past

Like scoundrels on dark alleys

And junkies that crowd your living room

Shooting candy canes

And listening to Buck Owens

You grow hair on your back

And why does whiskey come out of your bathroom sink

When you asked for vodka?

And Ringo knew a man who sailed the seas,

And Mick went down on a Black chick,

Brown sugar’s always sweet,

Like monkeys on gorillas

So don’t believe it when you see it

Your eyes are filled with marmalade

And your skin is stained with the toxic fumes

Of that man’s cigar

The one that’s stomping on an insect

Crawling on the kitchen walls

And the band is raging in the street

Next to your auntie’s little brothel

Where lives your brother

And we are the brotherhood of man,

No?

No!

There’s no space you gullible sardine!

We’re all alone,

If you don’t believe me, ask the little girls from Sweden

Locked in your pop’s garage,

They saw a Hollywood movie

And a tour took them to the basement where the

Men landed on the moon before

Sipping on a Cola Light

And smoking Camel cigarettes without filters

Because the filters were stained with your moma’s lipstick

Red

Because you’re tired of soft porn,

Soft soat,

Soft cushiony seat on the station wagon

Rescued from the memories of well dressed couples

Seeking admission to the cleanest toilet that a roadside

Gas station can provide.

I fill my lungs with air to scream your name

But you’re so deaf…so still…remain,

But the sulphur rises from the tears and holes on your

Halston jacket

While you still savour the flavours of 1974

Thinking it’s still around that dark corner where a

Paranoid orang-utan dances wildly to a tune by

James Brown

While Obama looks through the trash bin he managed to save

From the next one to occupy the house

And he finds a watermelon seed

And considers his next good deed…

And we all ran

Because it looks like rain

And when it rains

It all remains the same.

I mean, John said it man,

Got to be true…

C.2025 – Bodo Vespaciano – 25 AUG 2025 –

The only thing I can say is that she is one of my favourite artists and personalities of the art world…

CHEERS

Of course, for the Surrealists it was easy to forget a woman since they were all macho, macho men… So, here is what I have found out about Kay Sage, one that was never taught to me at uni either…

Kay Sage, Albany, New York, (1898–1963), North American Surrealist painter and poet. She is known for her haunting, architectural dreamscapes. Sage studied art in Rome in the 1920s, later moving to Paris where she became associated with the Surrealist movement. In 1940, she married fellow Surrealist Yves Tanguy, and the couple relocated to the United States during World War II.

Sage’s mature works are characterized by vast, desolate landscapes filled with scaffold-like structures, draped forms, and monumental architectural elements that convey themes of isolation, waiting, and melancholy. Unlike the biomorphic imagery of many Surrealists, her style leaned toward the geometric and architectural.

After Tanguy’s sudden death in 1955, Sage’s work became even darker, marked by a profound sense of grief and emptiness. Struggling with depression and declining eyesight, she took her own life in 1963.

Since, of course, she was usually overshadowed by her male contemporaries, she is now recognized as one of the most important women of Surrealism.

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CHEERS

SULPHUR BREATH AND NICOTINE

Sulphur breath and nicotine

No more water, no more beer,

The snake you wrap around your neck

Has kissed you,

Two times,

One kiss per cheek,

A little growl

And you grab your keychain from the rain clouds

That blew past

Like scoundrels on dark alleys

And junkies that crowd your living room

Shooting candy canes

And listening to Buck Owens

You grow hair on your back

And why does whiskey come out of your bathroom sink

When you asked for vodka?

And Ringo knew a man who sailed the seas,

And Mick went down on a Black chick,

Brown sugar’s always sweet,

Like monkeys on gorillas

So don’t believe it when you see it

Your eyes are filled with marmalade

And your skin is stained with the toxic fumes

Of that man’s cigar

The one that’s stomping on an insect

Crawling on the kitchen walls

And the band is raging in the street

Next to your auntie’s little brothel

Where lives your brother

And we are the brotherhood of man,

No?

No!

There’s no space you gullible sardine!

We’re all alone,

If you don’t believe me, ask the little girls from Sweden

Locked in your pop’s garage,

They saw a Hollywood movie

And a tour took them to the basement where the

Men landed on the moon before

Sipping on a Cola Light

And smoking Camel cigarettes without filters

Because the filters were stained with your moma’s lipstick

Red

Because you’re tired of soft porn,

Soft soat,

Soft cushiony seat on the station wagon

Rescued from the memories of well dressed couples

Seeking admission to the cleanest toilet that a roadside

Gas station can provide.

I fill my lungs with air to scream your name

But you’re so deaf…so still…remain,

But the sulphur rises from the tears and holes on your

Halston jacket

While you still savour the flavours of 1974

Thinking it’s still around that dark corner where a

Paranoid orang-utan dances wildly to a tune by

James Brown

While Obama looks through the trash bin he managed to save

From the next one to occupy the house

And he finds a watermelon seed

And considers his next good deed…

And we all ran

Because it looks like rain

And when it rains

It all remains the same.

I mean, John said it man,

Got to be true…

C.2025 – Bodo Vespaciano – 25 AUG 2025 –

Lou Reed… Transformer… 1972, the decade of the maturity and the greatness of rock music. Music like we have never heard after. Well, I like the 80’s too and the 90’s up to the day that Duran Duran released «Ordinary World«, the last great song by a rock/pop group… So Lou Reed died in 2013… He was born in one of my fave cities of the US, Brooklyn in 1942. He was the leader of the Velvet Underground… So what… He was like the original Hot Rat dude, a monster like some called him. But this song kicks bloody arse… «Take a Walk on the Wild Side«. How many dare?

CHEERS

Francisco is conversing with Bodo Vespaciano…

You want to talk about art?

No, I want to ask questions…

The more we talk about art, the more the questions…

Why are there so many questions? Is it because people want to know what art is? So tell me…

There is abstract art. And now you will ask what is abstract art? There is figurative art. And you’ll ask what is figurative art?

What the feck is art? Come on man, you know what it is…

Is there a message in your art? Are your paintings a language?

Hell no! No message at all! Who the hell would want to send a message!

My paintings are to be pleasing to the eye.

And mine are a complete mystery, to me…

(All photographs by and property of Francisco Bravo Cabrera/All Rights Reserved/C.2025)

CHEERS