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Otto Dix (1891-1969) painted war like few others before him. He was there–he painted what he saw.  There was no inflationary appreciation of patriotic glory. For example, in the painting below (Der Krieg, 1929-1932) he depicted collapsed trenches, the miserable transport of the wounded, decomposing and horribly deformed bodies, and a view of a blank and desolate horizon. Now that I think of it a little, Georg Grosz (1893-1959) also comes to mind in regards to Dix–he was a courageous fighter, an inventive and endlessly intro-extro-spective on the social landscape, especially during the Weimar years and particularly so when 1933 came around.  They were not alone, of course, though these artists are among the shining lights of artistic-documentary-expressive experience in Germany between the wars like the brilliant Max Beckmann (1884-1950, with his Morgues of 1922), Kathe Kollwitz, Christian Rohlf, and others. In any event, the Dix painting is extraordinary.

Here’s Dix’s Der Krieg: