Explosion by George Grosz

I think that this painting truly depicts the horrors of war. If i were to describe this painting in one word it would be chaos. I have stared at this piece for a few minutes and I still find it difficult to discern the different objects. What is clear however is that there is destruction. At the center of the picture I believe there is a fire. Obviously there are many buildings that are crashed and broken. There is smoke spewing out of many of these buildings which tells us that there must be a huge fire. I think the smoke and fire represent the fighting that was never at such a grand scale before WWI. The fire represents all the soldiers who left their homes for war while the smoke represents the confusion and chaos that was the effect of all the fighting. Grosz was one of many others who saw the cruelties and effects of war and probably painted this in an attempt to show it to those who could not see the horrible effects.