Monday, March 4, 2013

The Trench by Otto Dix (1923)

Modern warfare, or at least for its time…

This painting is full of features depicting the aftermath of World War I. The art after World War I was very much influenced with descriptive representations of the horror that happened in the trenches, and also the unfair treatment of returned war heroes.

It is rational with nature taken in account of the time were there was generally a deep mistrust of society; it created the expression of social resentment for the horror of war. The nature of the colors tells me that this artist is maybe trying to empower the political awareness among society, and projecting that the future is not all so bright.

This reality shows the ugly side without any sentimentality through a language of ideas that is expressed with very banal themes; something as explicit as dreams. In this painting, it is the reality of the situation that comes to expression more that the perspective of light, but essential contour, and precise and tense expressions plays an important artistic role.

The reason why I mention dreams in this context is because I am relating it to another very famous piece of art by Salvador Dali called “The Persistence of Memory” (1931). It is two different artists, genres, and times.  Essentially everything is different, but I draw a line between these two paintings in the setting, and most important the essence or first expression of destruction.



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1 comment:

  1. Ahmed,

    The painting you reference by Otto Dix is not "The Trench" of 1921-23, but his later painting, "Trench Warfare", which actually is contemporaneous with Dali's "The Persistence of Memory", having been painted around 1932-33. "The Trench" was last seen in 1940, and it is variously believed to have been burned by the Nazis as an example of degenerative art, sold to a private dealer in 1940 (there is a receipt in existence), or looted at the end of the war.

    JR

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