The War (Otto Dix)

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The war is a triptych with a predella by Otto Dix . The picture, painted in oil on wood, wasstartedin 1929 andcompleted in 1932 . The central panel measures 204 × 204 cm, the wings are therefore 204 × 102 cm in size, the full width of the predella is 60 cm high. The painting is in the Neue Meister gallery in Dresden . Since 1946 the painting was on loan in Dresden and for a few years also in Halle. In 1968 it wasacquired by the Dresden Museumfor 500,000 German marks .

Image description

The themes of the triptych are the First World War and the processing of Otto Dix's private experiences. Work began on the tenth anniversary of the end of the war. Almost simultaneously also the novel emerged on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque and many others, in contrast, however, the war-glorifying memory works. Otto Dix wanted to counteract the latter.

The painting is painted in the style of the old masters , as well as motifs from this period. The central panel shows a completely devastated landscape, over which corpses and body parts are scattered. Only one soldier with a gas mask appears to be alive. Dix takes up the composition of his earlier picture Trench (now lost) and connects it with the drastic representation on the Isenheim Altar by Mathias Grünewald . On the left wing you can see a column of soldiers, fully equipped, marching through a foggy war landscape; possibly in the fight. The front part of the column marches away from the viewer, the rear part in the direction of the viewer. Two soldiers in the front part turn their heads to the side so that one of their eyes is visible to the viewer. On the right wing people can be seen withdrawing from the fight. The dominant figure on the grand piano, helping a comrade, is a self-portrait by Otto Dix. Several soldiers lying next to each other can be seen in the predella below. It's not clear whether they're just sleeping or dead. The design of the predella is based on the image of Christ in the grave by Hans Holbein the Elder. J.

literature

  • Birgit Dalbajewa, Simone Fleischer, Olaf Peters (eds.): Otto Dix. The war. The Dresden Triptych . State Art Collections Dresden, New Masters Gallery. Sandstein, Dresden 2014, ISBN 978-3-95498-073-4 .
  • Birgit Dalbajewa: Otto Dix in the Dresden gallery. With a contribution by Florens Deuchler. State Art Collections Dresden, New Masters Gallery. Sandstein, Dresden 2007, ISBN 978-3-937602-95-0 .
  • Wulf Herzogenrath and Johann-Karl Schmidt (eds.): Dix - Otto Dix on his 100th birthday 1891–1991. Hatje, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-7757-0335-7 .

Web links