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German Expressionism

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THE COLLECTION

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From the portfolio

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  • Otto Dix. Streetcar (Elektrische) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). (1920, dated 1921, published 1922)
    Streetcar (Elektrische) from the...
    (1920, dated 1921, published 1922)
    Otto Dix. Streetcar (Elektrische) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). (1920, dated 1921, published 1922)
  • Otto Dix. Street Noise (Lärm der Strasse) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). (1920, dated 1921, published 1922)
    Street Noise (Lärm der Strasse)...
    (1920, dated 1921, published 1922)
    Otto Dix. Street Noise (Lärm der Strasse) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). (1920, dated 1921, published 1922)
  • Otto Dix. Street (Strasse) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1919 (published 1922)
    Street (Strasse) from the...
    1919 (published 1922)
    Otto Dix. Street (Strasse) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1919 (published 1922)
  • Otto Dix. Apotheosis (Apotheose) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1919 (published 1922)
    Apotheosis (Apotheose) from the...
    1919 (published 1922)
    Otto Dix. Apotheosis (Apotheose) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1919 (published 1922)
  • Otto Dix. Scherzo from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1920 (published 1922)
    Scherzo from the portfolio Nine...
    1920 (published 1922)
    Otto Dix. Scherzo from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1920 (published 1922)
  • Otto Dix. Cats (Katzen) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1920 (published 1922)
    Cats (Katzen) from the portfolio...
    1920 (published 1922)
    Otto Dix. Cats (Katzen) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1920 (published 1922)
  • Otto Dix. Man and Woman (Nocturnal Scene) [Mann und Weib (Nächtliche Szene)] from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). (1919, dated 1920, published 1922)
    Man and Woman (Nocturnal Scene) [Mann und...
    (1919, dated 1920, published 1922)
    Otto Dix. Man and Woman (Nocturnal Scene) [Mann und Weib (Nächtliche Szene)] from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). (1919, dated 1920, published 1922)
  • Otto Dix. The Celebrities (Constellation) [Die Prominenten (Konstellation)] from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1920 (published 1922)
    The Celebrities (Constellation) [Die...
    1920 (published 1922)
    Otto Dix. The Celebrities (Constellation) [Die Prominenten (Konstellation)] from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). 1920 (published 1922)
  • Otto Dix. Lovers (Liebespaar) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). (1920), dated 1921, published 1922
    Lovers (Liebespaar) from the...
    (1920), dated 1921, published 1922
    Otto Dix. Lovers (Liebespaar) from the portfolio Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte). (1920), dated 1921, published 1922

About the portfolio

Heather Hess, German Expressionist Digital Archive Project, German Expressionism: Works from the Collection. 2011.

Otto Dix aggressively implies in this portfolio that sex is the force driving all men. In Apotheose (Apotheosis), fragmented body parts and leering faces orbit a grotesquely distorted prostitute, whose outsize genitalia mark the center of the composition. Dix believed in the utter incompatibility of men and women. He borrowed imagery conveying the epic conflict of the sexes from philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, such as the juxtaposed moon and sun in Mann und Weib (Nächtliche Szene) (Man and woman [nocturnal scene]) and the cats slinking over moonlit roofs in Katzen (Cats). On the streets, meanwhile, traditional order—both moral and pictorial—breaks down. Die Prominenten (Konstellation) (The celebrities [constellation]) reveals Dix's skepticism toward exuberant promises of a better future: four ideologues share a single body, espousing a manifesto of love, fatherland, order, and Dada.

Although still indebted stylistically to the Expressionist techniques of distortion, the Futurist fracturing of picture planes, and the Cubist use of collage, Dix has already discovered the power of scathing social critique in these early woodcuts, which count as some of his first prints. He made woodcuts only briefly, between 1919 and 1920, and then gave up the medium entirely.

Otto Dix (German, 1891–1969)

The Portfolio

Nine Woodcuts (Neun Holzschnitte)

Date:
(1922, prints executed: 1919-1920)
Medium:
Portfolio of nine woodcuts
Dimensions:
composition (see child records): dimensions vary; sheet (each approx.): 6 9/16 x 13 3/4" (42 x 35 cm)
Publisher:
Heinar Schilling, Dresdner Verlag, Dresden
Printer:
unknown
Copyright:
© 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Reference:
Karsch 23b - 31b. Rifkind 473.
MoMA Number:
Portfolio_Dix_NineWoodcuts
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