Director, Glenn Lowry: In 1914, many Expressionist artists thought World War I would lead to a transformation of society putting an end to the materialism and complacency of the country’s monarchy and bourgeoisie. Some artists even volunteered to join the war effort. Those notions were put aside as the brutal, relentless conflict wore on. Artists Franz Marc and August Macke were killed in the war. Others, such as Max Beckmann and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner served only briefly and were discharged after having nervous breakdowns.
Curator, Starr Figura: Otto Dix was exceptional in that he volunteered early on and he served the entire war, from 1914 to 1918 as a machine gunner on both the Eastern and Western fronts.
Even when the war was over, the memories still haunted Dix. And this particular portfolio was his way of releasing them and also bearing witness to the horror of war, and stating that war is not honor and glory, it is devastation and horror and perversity. It's a total of 50 etchings and it's one of the most shocking and relentlessly difficult things to look at I think ever created in art.
Dix used etching and aquatint as a way of describing the various details in this series. The linear technique of etching enabled him to get incredible detail, and aquatint, which is a corrosive technique whereby the painted on areas are eaten away by acid, actually helps to convey the sense of decomposition that we see in a lot of the images of men in the trenches either dead, or almost dead.