Otto Dix was born in 1891during a time of upheaval in German society, and is best known for depicting the harsh realities of this time in his work, a prominent figure in the German Expressionist Movement. Some of his more famous work which depict the brutality and horors of war stem from his experience as a soldier in World War 1. Although he is known for these kind of depictions, he also had started working with portraiture. His portraits are also known for de-emphasizing the strenghts and good nature of his subjects, but rather bringing out their faults and turning the portrait into something more of a cariacature.
He switches his style after the second World War. Unlike his previous paintings these try to reduce the horror of the aftermath of that time through religion. Confronted with this paradox, and which side he should be on Dix does not really commit to any of the styles.At the end of his life he continued painting religious allegories, landscapes and portraits.

1. Collapsed Trenches, 1924

My intial reaction to this picture, was that this seemed a very nightmarish world. The absense of color in it accentuates that fact and draws the onlooker even closer. The rotted skeleton of dead trees looms over the landscape like sentinels  watching over the chaos down below. However, I soon become aware of the skeletons, limbs and bodies that are strewn around in the collapsed trenches. This image has a haunting quality because not only does it show the devastation, it emphasizes it too. Here man melds with the torn apart landscape, their lives reduced to becoming rotting corpses and limbs on an anonymous battlefield.










2. Flanders, 1934

From research I have learned that this pictured depicts the battlefield where three devastating battles were fought. Here, he presents the aftermath of the battles where the bodies of the soldiers lie scattered about in the rest of the carnage. Tents lay trampled and destroyed as both bodies and articles of war melt into the muddy landscape.However, instead of this being such a nightmarish scene as the previous picture the presence of the sunset indicates that he may want to onlooker to think of it differently. The colors are muted and soft, not dark and intense and casts a hazylike quality over the scene. He is putting to rest the victims who lie in the field, their bodies which will soon rot and meld with the mud. He wills the onlooker to hope that the same way the sunsets on this battlefield, so it will set on the war.

3. Three Prostitutes on the Street, 1925

There is a rift between the women, albeit they are all prostitutes. The one on the left walks by, her nose in the air and holding a little dog in her arm with obvious disdain for the two women. The one in the middle stands somewhat to the side unscrupulously  showing off what she has to offer.The other stands a bit to the side wrapped up in her coat, her haggard looking face the only thing that we see peeking out from under her hat. All three women work the "system" and its obvious that while it may work for one the others do not fare as well.