Günter Grass - the artist

Throughout his life, Günter Grass remained loyal to art and even designed his own book covers. The original designs for his famous 1959 novel "The Tin Drum" can be found amongst his collection of drawings and sculptures. After the Second World War Grass began training as a stonemason, but then studied graphics and sculpture in Dusseldorf.

...even when I'm not drawing, because I'm writing or doing nothing," wrote Grass in his 1979 work "On Drawing and Writing." He added that while writing suspends time, drawing allows for more succinct expression.

After his work "The Flounder" in 1977 Grass made this bronze sculpture "Flounder in Grip" as part of a series. The occasion was the first awards ceremony of the German Book Prize at the Leipzig Fair in 2002. A sculpture from the series can also be seen in the garden in front of his house in Behlendorf and another at the Günter Grass house in Lübeck.

On the relationship between his artistic and literary activities, Grass once said: "Questions like 'Are you first and foremost a writer or a graphic artist?' are as understandable as they are ridiculous." He added that he could only respond playfulling, staying far away from either-or categories.

Enormous debate followed the release of Günter Grass' autobiography "Peeling the Onion" in 2006. In the book, he confessed to having been a member of the Nazi special unit, the Waffen-SS, in 1944. Critics questioned his perceived moral integrity and many questioned his credibility. This self-portrait shows Grass as a soldier, in his first manuscript of "Peeling the Onion."

Grass continued on from his novel "The Tin Drum" in 1986 with "The Rat." The bronze sculpture "Girl with Rat" references this work. In it, the narrator communicates with a female rat - blurring the boundaries between dream and reality.

Grass noted his impressions of a tour to India with "Show your Tongue." For the book's cover in 1988 he drew a representation of the Hindu goddess Kali - the goddess of death and destruction, but also renewal. In the drawing she stretches out her tongue while squatting and throws her numerous hands in the air.

Following the publication of "Crabwalk" (2002), Grass enjoyed a creative artistic frenzy. In 2003 he published the illustrated book "Last Dance," with its image of an overstretched body moving in time with the music. The title references Grass himself, who was a skilled and passionate dancer.

Sexuality was a key theme for Grass. In 2002 he again visited the subject in a series of lithographs with titles such as "Love in August," "Severe Shock" and "After the Steep Ascent." The works showed copulating couples in adventurous and provocative positions - a theme which carried over to his sculpture work, such as this one entitled "She Dominates."

In his recently published book "Grimm's Words - a Declaration of Love," Grass not only told of the development of the German dictionary and Brothers Grimm, but stories of his own life - inevitable, as an author writes what he knows. And in homage to the great storyteller Hans Christian Andersen, Grass drew him to mark his 200th birthday.