Original color alugraph “On the Coast” (2006) by Günter Grass

Günter Grass, born in Danzig in 1927, is considered a major figure in German literature. He also made a name for himself as a sculptor, painter, and graphic artist. With a touch of self-irony, he said of himself: "As a visual artist, I am a trained artist; as a writer, an untrained one." After training as a stonemason, Grass studied sculpture at the Düsseldorf Academy in 1948/49 and at the Berlin University of the Arts in 1953. Grass became known as a writer in 1959 with the first part of the so-called "Danzig Trilogy," "The Tin Drum." From the early 1960s onward, Grass developed an increasingly strong political commitment, which is reflected in his books. In the 1980s, he produced numerous graphic works, which were published in the two-volume work "Drawing and Writing." It is precisely in these works that self-quotations are particularly prominent and underscore his social critique.