Humiliates German artist partaking in perverse deeds (8)

I believe the answer is:

degrades

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'humiliates german artist' is the definition.
'degrades' can be an answer for 'humiliates' (degrading is a kind of humiliating). I am not certain of the 'german artist' bit.

'partaking in perverse deeds' is the wordplay.
'partaking' becomes 'gra' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'perverse' indicates anagramming the letters.
'deeds' with letters rearranged gives 'dedes'.
'gra' put within 'dedes' is 'DEGRADES'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for degrades that I've seen before include "Humiliates" , "Cheapens, demeans" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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