Art of War (2)
Sturmtruppe Geht Unter Gas Vor (1924) - Otto Dix (1891-1969) [Germany]
Mixed Media: Etching, Aquatint, and Drypoint on Sheet.
From Otto Dix's antiwar portfolio Der Krieg.
[Image Description. Dark black and white mixed media etching of aggressive shock troopers during WW1. They all wear garish gas mask with ghoulish wrinkles and large buggy black eyeholes . Most wear steel helmets, but the one in the front wears some sort of hat or beret. They all face the camera. The painting is very expressionist.
One on the right of the front figure raises a stick grenade. On the other side one raises his hand as if motioning, his arm passing underneath a broken up piece of barbwired fence. Thick thorny lines of barb wire cross over the soldiers' chest and background. A few more soldiers, hunched over, their gas mask expressively angered or bug-eyed. Dead leafless trees can be seen in the background and distance. End.]
Painted by Otto Dix, WW1 veteran who served as a machine gunner. Print was a part of an antiwar series made to be massed produced for German people to see, encouraged by his fellow artists and his art dealer. The scene recounts the shock troopers from the German Empire. As a member of his series Der Krieg, it was made to portray the decay of post-war reality.
The painting would later be taken and censored by the Nazi Party during their reign, entered into their collection of degenerate art. During WW2 Otto Dix painted landscapes to not be targeted, and continued making antiwar art after the second world war ended. Art movements changed once more, and so did the very nation he knew, divided extremely. He struggled to sell art, feeling he no longer belonged.
You can see this print now in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, NY, United States.