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Indepth Arts News:
"Otto Dix: Prints 1920-24"
2003-10-08 until 2003-11-23
Iziko-SA National Gallery
Cape Town, ,
ZA
The remarkable works of famous 20th century German expressionist, Otto Dix,
will be on view at Iziko-SA National Gallery from 8 October - 23 November.
"Otto Dix: Prints 1920-24" is an exhibition which portrays all the horror
and carnage of war - and the devastation of its aftermath. The core of the exhibition is the great series of works entitled "The War"
and it was these harrowing portrayals which earned for Dix the comparison
with Goya, whose "Disasters of War" reflected a similar abhorrence of war,
in this case the Napoleonic wars.
Dix was born, educated and taught in Germany and served as a machine gunner
on the frontline of the European battlefields in World War 1. Here in the
infamous trenches of the Great War, his "inspiration" emerged and he was
compelled to commit to paper his graphic indictment of war. Hapless
casualties of war such as mutilated soldiers, amputees and prostitutes were
all part of his repertoire. Later elected to the Prussian Academy, Dix's
brutally vivid works so enraged the Nazi Regime that they vilified him,
dismissed him from all his positions and forbade him to exhibit his
"degenerate" art.
IMAGE:
Otto Dix
Streichholzhändler (Matchseller)
1920
Copyright VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
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