Stormtroopers Advancing Under Gas by Otto Dix

Art work details

Original Title :

Sturmtruppe geht unter Gas vor

Year of production :

1924

Artist:

Otto Dix

Medium :

Original print, Etching, Aquatint

Materials:

Ink, Paper

Dimensions :

height: 19.6 cms; width: 29.1 cms

Credit Line :

Purchased from Garton European Prints with MGC/V&A Purchase Fund and the City of Leicester Museums Trust assistance

Copyright :

© DACS 2013.

Catalogue References:

Karsch 81 b. Rifkind 484 12.

Associated Groups :

Novembergruppe, Dresdner Sezession

Tags:

Weimar Republic, Dix, Etching, War, Aquatint

This is Plate 12 from the series of 50 entitled War, published by Karl Nierendorf in 1924. War is Dix’s best-known printed work, in which he depicted the horror of WWI as he had experienced it. Dix had made over 600 drawings while serving as a front-line gunner. While less disturbing than some of the other subjects, this plate presents a chilling image of violence, death and the depersonalisation of war.

Dix, Grosz and Beckmann were the chief left wing exponents of the New Objectivity movement. They uncompromisingly presented Germany’s social condition during the Weimar Republic, exposing the hypocrisy, violence and corruption behind the superficial appearance of wellbeing. Dix and Beckmann dominated German printmaking after the First World War.

Printed by Karl Nierendorf.