One of Dix’s controversial work which going to be analysed in this essay is “Trench” (fig.1). The medium was oil on canvas, with unknown location, since the works was seized during Nazi regime. This painting made from 1920 in Dresden and finished in 1923 where has moved to Dusseldorf, during the Weimar Republic. “Trench” portrayed war that he experienced. The annual exhibition of this work was in Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne in December 1923. At that time, there were no visual arts that portrayed the war in this kind of disturbing and shocking manner. Alfred H. Barr said that this painting might be the most famous picture in post-war Europe (Otto Dix 2015) which also made him famous. The initial function of this work was intended as a monument to barbarism of the trench experience (Crockett 1992).
…show more content…
This works is under the New Objectivity movement, on the other hand this works also considered as part of Expressionism. He portrayed his memento mori in detailed that shown the main idea of war was a disgusting thing. The painting was full of death and shown a scene of devastation (Gutbrod and Dix 2010). It was shown from a lot of mutilated bodies and skulls all over the painting. Wires and branches supports the scene to be more tense and giving the sense of cruelty. The center attraction of this painting is a dead soldier body on the upper left that has been stabbed on a freestanding iron reinforcement. He illustrated the war in this work different from his previous work, where he visualize of his experiences during the war. While Trench, portrayed the horror of the dead and wounded in WWI, rather than illustrating the
This works is under the New Objectivity movement, on the other hand this works also considered as part of Expressionism. He portrayed his memento mori in detailed that shown the main idea of war was a disgusting thing. The painting was full of death and shown a scene of devastation (Gutbrod and Dix 2010). It was shown from a lot of mutilated bodies and skulls all over the painting. Wires and branches supports the scene to be more tense and giving the sense of cruelty. The center attraction of this painting is a dead soldier body on the upper left that has been stabbed on a freestanding iron reinforcement. He illustrated the war in this work different from his previous work, where he visualize of his experiences during the war. While Trench, portrayed the horror of the dead and wounded in WWI, rather than illustrating the