Nova Benway reviews the exhibition George Grosz: Way of All Flesh at David Nolan Gallery, New York, on view through March 3, 2012.

In the exhibited drawings, Benway writes, "both skill and rectitude are physical characteristics. Resigned pigs are carted to slaughter by equally resigned laborers; the images are as concerned with the drama of small-scale murder as with the correct positioning of the bucket that catches the blood. This may be partly due to Grosz's use of the reed pen, an instrument often used for calligraphy, which he applies here to delineate the force of muscles at work, and equipment well-used, with forceful yet delicate strokes. Though bodies are plentiful and expressive in the drawings, Grosz's usual eroticism is absent; the forms depict character rather than voluptuous desire."