Dix

self-portrait as mars by otto dix (1915)

81 cm x 66 cm (32 in × 26 in)

German Expressionism

Otto Dix was a veteran of World War I, serving on both the western and eastern fronts. He was a machine-gunner in the trenches at the Somme and experienced first-hand some of the worst fighting and conditions. This work, painted early in the War, reveals his evolving attitudes of the conflict and his part in it. Caught up in the same patriotic wave that consumed Europe in August 1914, Dix volunteered. The next year he painted this shattered portrayal of death and destruction with himself at the very center.

Influenced by a style called Cubism, Dix paints himself in the center as a clench-jawed, steely-gazed, modern warrior but the image is fragmented. Surrounding him are skulls, blood, grave markers, screaming warhorses, and other images of devastation. These pictures emerge out of the jagged, angular shapes that construct the painting. Some forms blend into others creating a confusion of imagery.

In a painting full of deep reds, blues, blacks, and whites, yellow jumps off the canvas. Notice on what images Dix uses this color: the bloody mouths and the skull. These are the most violent of the imagery here and Dix doesn’t want them to be missed. He does not want them to fade into the background or get lost in the rest of the visual noise. The artist is drawing specific attention to them. Yellow is also used in lesser amounts to highlight the emblems on his helmet. For a soldier, emblems like this are symbols of identity and pride, but Dix has linked them to death. Already at this early period in the War, Dix is viewing his service negatively.

The title of the work identifies the figure as Mars, the Roman god of war. In many examples through the centuries, Mars had been depicted as charging though wasted landscapes, leaving suffering and ruin behind him. Dix updates these themes. Mars is a black hole around which everything swirls. War is a constant that turns everything around it into chaos. Since the figure is a self-portrait, Dix identifies himself as Mars because I think he feels a deep personal responsibility for the War. I have heard stories of veterans regretting their participation in war. Not that they did anything wrong themselves, but many times they feel their contributions to its horrors are as responsible as those who caused them. It seems to me that Dix felt a profound personal guilt. Being a machine-gunner in the trenches, he saw bodies chewed up and torn apart by his direct actions. It was his job and one for which he volunteered. It’s no wonder this depiction is shattered and chaotic. The imagery spins in a cacophony of color and shapes. It almost explodes off the canvas.

Dix served the entire length of World War I, was wounded just before it ended, and was discharged an angry and traumatized man. His art in the period between the two world wars would be highly critical of German government and society, the War, and his fellow veterans. One source I read compared his art to the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, also by a German veteran of World War I. I think this is an apt comparison.

© May 27, 2023