Masterworks

Nowadays we are not surprised if we find the lid of an old tin can in a picture in a gallery or, for that matter, torn cardboard, scraps of newspaper or bits of string. But when Kurt Schwitters first started using materials like these in his work, it was really a very surprising thing to do...

In 1922, Oskar Schlemmer would have been among the first to call for an end to the distinction between science and art - this seemed to be the only way forward to a more reasonably organized society. But by the time he painted this picture, in 1931, he saw that there was more of a rift than ever between science and art, between thought and feeling...

George Grosz was born in Berlin but grew up in the outskirts. The big city excited and appalled him with its size, noise and colourful crowds. But in this painting from 1920 there is little of this; we recognize the elements of life in the city, the vast buildings, the factories, the empty formalities of dress and gesture, but we see nothing of life itself, only its bitter residue...

Konrad Klapheck painted this picture in 1965 at the age of 30. It has since become his most well-known and popular painting. When it was finished, he decided on a title: War. 'I could have painted Army Tank,' he later explained, 'but I preferred objects whose aggressive character would not be taken for granted' ...

In 1936, 2 years after it was painted, this picture was chosen by Alfred Barr, the Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to appear in his important exhibition - Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism. Richard Oelze, called his painting 'Everyday Torments,' but the world it shows has little in common with this one - where most of us find the things that annoy or frighten us ...