Visual Analysis Of Otto Dix's The War

Otto Dix’s The War

Otto Dix, a German expressionist painter started his art career at young age, while he was in elementary school. He became an apprentice to a teacher and studied art, later to move on to the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts as a young adult. Later on he volunteered to join the German military, and was eager when he found out he was going to become a machine gunner. The war was not how he thought it would be though, as he was traumatized by the scenes of the war and came back as a different person. His painting styles grew to a darker and more sinister outlook on life with a main focus on war that gave a deathly feeling.

The War Triptych is a painting that shows how WWI twisted Otto Dix’s view of life, and how he felt about the war, while the

The paintings give myself the feeling that there is a pit in my stomach and makes me want to look at something more uplifting. The colors makes the painting have a darker and gloomier feel. The painting of the soldiers marching to battle shows the men going into the fog, disappearing like ghosts, and raises the thought that maybe Dix was trying to imply that the men would be marching to their death, only to become ghosts and to disappear forever. The center painting is what draws the viewer’s attention to a deadly battle. It shows no survivors and with very little open space in the painting. The sky is gray with the blocking of sun, it shows that the day was not a good day, offering no happiness or life in the painting. The painting on the right shows a man trying to rescue a fallen soldier, signifying the need to try and preserve what life is left after battle. The bottom painting shows the result of war, which gives only the result of death and despair. Each painting tells its own little story but all together they tell a story that only few can