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• 1 2018-05-22T14:52:34+00:00 Greed/"Grey Day" 1 plain 2018-05-22T14:52:34+00:00 George Grosz’ "Grey Day" (1921) is an expressionist painting representing the proletarian oppression of the lower class by businessmen. In the painting, there are four men: the closest man, who has detailed facial features and clothing, is of a ; the next closest man is of the lower working class with simple, but has sunken facial features and plain clothes. The two men in the back seem to exist on the same visual plane, as one has a top hat with a tuxedo that indicates a higher social status, and the other has  drab clothes and carries a shovel, both which indicate his lower social status. Even though these men are on the same plane, the man of higher class has simple facial features such as eyes, a nose, and mustache, but the man with the shovel has no facial features at all.
  
  Through the juxtaposition of these men, Grosz illustrates how greed can make people blind to those below them economically. The artist chose to add facial features to the men of the upper class and to not include any facial features on the men of the lower classes. The lower class characters are depersonalized and the upper class characters are humanized through this artistic choice. The only difference between these men is their income, but the painting sends the message that the faceless man in the background might not be seen by his social betters as a human being.