Visions Plate 17: The Suicide Machine by Max Slevogt

Lithograph, 1917.

Visions Plate 17: The Suicide Machine

Art work details

Original Title :
Der Selbstmord-Automat
Year of production :
1917
Artist:
Max Slevogt
Medium :
Original print, Lithograph
Materials:
Ink, Paper
Dimensions :
height: 37 cms; width: 24.4 cms
Credit Line :
Purchased from Mrs Monika Kinley with MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund assistance
Associated Groups :
Berliner Secession
Tags:
Lithograph, World War I, Death, Portrait, Slevogt, Visions

Plate 17 from ‘Visions’, 1916-17.

The transformation of the Great War into a brutal mechanised slaughter is given a surreal and ironic twist. Civilians terrified by the prospect of war can line up in a tree-lined boulevard, pay a coin into a vending machine and suddenly be shot dead, just like a real battle. Death makes no distinction of class, the trenchcoat-wearing man in the foreground seconds away from the fate of the well-dressed man a few yards beyond.

V & A Purchase Grant Fund

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