The German painter and graphic artist Josef Scharl is regarded an important representative of Expressionism and Expressive Realism.
The largely social-critical and satirical-grotesque oeuvre of Josef Scharl was often in the focus of public controversies, due to its drastic straightforwardness. In the times of the NS dictatorship it was defamed as "degenerate". In the beginning his work was shaped by grave colors, clearly showing the influence of Max Beckmann, George Grosz, Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch, however, Josef Scharl's own style began to fully unfold in the 1930s. It was the sweeping roundness of forms, a broad duct and a strong and decorative coloring that became characteristic. Landscapes, nudes, portraits and still lives, as well as the social critical topics and book illustrations ("Grimms Märchen", drawings for the bible) became his favorite fields of activity of Josef Scharl.
Josef Scharl, who had already gained international acknowledgement with an exhibition in Amsterdam in 1935, was, among others, honored with a large retrospective in the Kunsthalle in Emden in 2000, the Sinclair-House in Bad Homburg and the Leopold-Hoesch-Museum in Düren.