Betsy Lewis blogs about the exhibtion Flower of the Prairie: George Grosz in Dallas at the Dallas Museum of Art, on view through August 19, 2012.

Lewis writes: "While earlier works are sharply outlined satires of darkening German politics, Grosz adopted a style for the Dallas series that's thrilled to be dancing, dressing up, and falling for its subject matter. The watercolor forms of Dallas Broadway (1952) look uncannily lucid; the city's writhing neon street signs melt into the hustle on the streets. (That the painting could be any city center is only a minor impediment.) Dallas Skyline (1952) introduces a peppy coming-of-age postcard with protracted blue sky… The buildings in the painting really are that color, and Pegasus still flies at the heart of the city, a tiny Shetland pony among skyscrapers."