German Painter and Print maker Otto Dix created a series of 50 dry point and aquatint etchings, 5 portfolios with 10 etchings each. Created in 1923-24 and published in Berlin these etching focus around his personal experiences from the trenched during the first world war. He was a machine gunner on both the west and eastern front for the imperial German army after joining voluntarily.
These etchings bring to light the terrifying horrors of War, from the gas masks to the decomposing bodies of both men and animals on the battlefield. They resemble nightmares, something Dix himself suffered from while creating these images, imagining he was back in the trenches with death once again. He said to have had nightmares of crawling through destroyed houses.
A quote from otto Dix:
I didn’t draw war pictures in order to prevent the war. I would never be so insolent. The goal is to banish the war. All art is an effort of banishment.
When I look at these etchings I receive a sense of entrapment, entrapment by death. Everywhere you turn there is a brutal reminder that this place is a graveyard.
The gruesome reality of his work shows flesh being blown from faces, brain splattered across the mud and decomposition. He does this all in black and white which really helps add to the inhumane images that he is showing, there is no inch of life. Dix only took up and learnt etching after the war for this series, previously occupying paintings in his work primarily. I believe there is something in the mark making and the vigorous expression of that style of medium that reflects the chaotic reality of that time. Etching it literally scratching into something, which I could imagine is what these memory felt like in Dix’s mind, they are carved in forever.
One piece that sticks out to me in particular is a piece called “Wounded Man”.
I find this etching completely terrifying, it’s something in the sunken eyes that look up completely petrified. I do now know from where this man comes, or what side he is fighting for, but it doesn’t matter, the fear is the same. This is something Dix wanted to include in his work, there was no deciphering which man was from what side, they are all men, all people, just fighting for their country. It’s heartbreaking to know that it was like a trap for both sides, both just wanting to do the right thing for their country, but both having to deal with the horrors first hand and then suffering from it all those years after.
PTSD of the first world war was called shellshock and unfortunately Otto Dix suffered from it too. Shellshock was experiences by many, and if you were to refuse to return back to the warzone then you were immediately shot. PTSD is the most severe of psychological trauma and can take years to recover from and can be triggered from very small things, for Dix it was in his dreams, his memories.
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