Abandoning the style and subject matter of his earlier work, he exhibited regularly and taught for many years at the Art Students League of New York.

[3] At the urging of his cousin, the young Grosz began attending a weekly drawing class taught by a local painter named Grot.

[6] From 1909 to 1911, he studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where his teachers were Richard Müller, Robert Sterl, Raphael Wehle, and Osmar Schindler.

[8] He did this as a protest against German nationalism[3] and out of a romantic enthusiasm for America[6] – a legacy of his early reading of the books of James Fenimore Cooper, Bret Harte and Karl May – that he retained for the rest of his life.

[10] Following the November Revolution in the last months of 1918, Grosz joined the Spartacist League,[11] which was renamed the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in December 1918.

[3] In the same year he published a collection of his drawings, titled Gott mit uns ("God with us"), a satire on German society.

Grosz was accused of insulting the army, which resulted in a 300 German Mark fine and the confiscation of the plates used to print the album.

[20] One depicted prisoners under assault from a minister who vomits grenades and weapons onto them, and another featured a crucified Christ wearing a World War I gas mask and combat boots.

According to historian David Nash, Grosz "publicly stated that he was neither Christian nor pacifist, but was actively motivated by an inner need to create these pictures".

The implication is that, from Grosz’s point of view, religion was being used as essentially an opiate of the masses to encourage soldiers to die for the state.

Corpulent businessmen, wounded soldiers, prostitutes, sex crimes and orgies were his great subjects (for example, see Fit for Active Service).

"[42] Although a softening of his style had been apparent since the late 1920s, Grosz's work assumed a more sentimental tone in America, a change generally seen as a decline.

As it portrays the warmongering of arms manufacturers, this painting became a destination of protesters of the Vietnam War in Heckscher Park (where the museum is sited) in the late 1960s and early 70s.

In 2006, the Heckscher proposed selling Eclipse of the Sun at its then-current appraisal of approximately $19,000,000.00 to pay for repairs and renovations to the building.

[45] Grosz's art influenced other New Objectivity artists such as Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Anton Räderscheidt, and Georg Scholz.

[46] In the United States, the artists influenced by his work included the social realists Ben Shahn and William Gropper.

In 2002, actor Kevin McKidd portrayed Grosz in a supporting role as an eager artist seeking exposure in Max, regarding Adolf Hitler's youth.

[48] In 2003 the Grosz family initiated a legal battle against the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, asking that three paintings be returned.

It is well documented that the Nazis stole thousands of paintings during World War II and many heirs of German painters continue to fight museums in order to reclaim such works.

[49] In 2015, Ralph Jentsch – the managing director of the Grosz estate since 1994 – co-founded a Berlin-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the artist.