Dark Times by Hans Baluschek (1870-1935)

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Dark times call for principled action. Painter, graphic artist and writer Hans Balushek had the bad timing to be born … Read more Dark times call for principled action. Painter, graphic artist and writer Hans Balushek had the bad timing to be born in 1870 in Breslau, Silesia, then an area within Germany, but today’s Wrocław, Poland. He became known for his Critical Realism style, capturing the bleak existence of working-class Berlin, as seen in this work.
Economic hardship was a reality in 1920s German life, drawing the artist into politics. He not only joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany but also contributed to Social Democratic and Communist publications. Not exactly a cultural poster boy to illustrate the rising power of National Socialism.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, they labeled Baluschek a "Marxist artist" and tossed his paintings into the pile labeled "degenerate art." Subsequently dismissed from his positions and forbidden from exhibiting his work, Baluschek died in Berlin in 1935 at age 65. Today, German museums and galleries, including Berlin's city museum, the Märkisches, and the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart have returned Baluschek to his deserved prominence. See less