Wounded Soldier

Otto Dix fought in the trenches of Germany in World War I, where he volunteered to fight in the machine gun unit. Before the war, many people believed that serving in the war was an honorable experience and that it would be over by Christmas. However, the technological advancements such as fighter planes, poison gas and machine guns prolonged the war and dramatically increased the number of deaths. After being traumatized by the atrocities of war, Dix began to question the purpose of war and attempted to translate his experiences onto his art. This, in turn, changed many people’s perspectives on warfare by exposing them to the brutality of World War I. 

           The painting “Wounded Soldier,” illustrates a soldier whose face is etched with horror and pain. His helmet has been smeared with black markings, possibly blood and dirt, which suggests that he has seen plenty of violence. The messy splattering of black and white tones around the soldier’s body represents the chaos and bleakness of war. Instead of depicting glory and honor, Dix depicts the harsh reality of war with a wounded, terrified soldier. “Wounded Soldier” ultimately changed how many people reacted to World War I. The shift from viewing war as glorious to horrifying led to the Postmodernist rejection of beauty and disbelief in progress. Many who had experienced the Great War, including Dix, suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and sought to express their disturbances through mediums such as art. Thus, the notion of “beauty” in art was rejected because it did not represent the reality that people had experienced. And although technological progresses such as trains had made their lives more convenient, weapons such as machine guns made people question whether technology was necessarily a factor in improving lives and permanently changed their outlook on war as well. “Wounded Soldier,” along with Naqoyqatsi and Catch-22, show that war, made more deadly by technological advancements, is a senseless and destructive event. 

Potash, Brett. Art Lecture Notes.  

“Otto Dix.” Wikipedia. Web. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Dix
 
Henshaw, Mark. "The Art of War- Otto Dix's Der Krieg [War] Cycle 1924." National Gallery of Australia. Web. http://www.nga.gov.au/dix/