National Gallery of Victoria

CURRENT EXHIBITION

War: The Prints of Otto Dix

April 12, 2008—August 10, 2008

WAR: THE PRINTS OF OTTO DIX
A National Gallery of Australia Travelling Exhibition

“I did not paint war pictures in order to prevent war. I would never have been so arrogant. I painted them to exorcise the experience of war. All art is about exorcism.”
-Otto Dix

The brutality of war will be explored in a confronting new exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Opening on 12 April, War: The prints of Otto Dix will feature fifty-one etchings documenting the artist’s experiences in the First World War.

Born in Germany in 1861, Otto Dix was a soldier during the First World War. He was profoundly affected by the war and took every opportunity, both during and after his active service, to document what he saw. Still haunted by his memories several years after the war ended, Dix produced a series of 51 etchings entitled Der Krieg (War) based on his recollections. By creating these etchings he hoped to exorcise the memories of war. Explaining the effect of the war on him, Dix said: “As a young man you don’t notice at all that you were, after all, badly affected. For years afterwards, at least ten years, I kept getting these dreams in which I had
to crawl through ruined houses, along passages I could hardly get through.” The etchings are inspired by Francisco Goya’s Los desastres de la Guerra (The disaster’s of war), which documented Goya’s experience during the Napoleonic invasion of Spain and the Spanish War of independence. Like Goya, Dix used a variety of etching techniques with astonishing facility.

Dr Gerard Vaughan, Director, NGV said this exhibition provided a unique opportunity for viewers to see the complete Der Krieg cycle.
“Widely considered a masterpiece of the twentieth century reflecting the horrors of the First World War, this is the first time the complete Der Krieg cycle has been displayed in Melbourne.”

Dr Petra Kayser, Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings at the NGV said:
“Dix’s images of 20th century trench warfare are uncompromising depictions of brutality and suffering. The stark black and white prints convey the horror of war with an almost morbid fascination and remain to this day one of the most powerful anti-war statements in modern art.”

War: The prints of Otto Dix is on at the National Gallery of Victoria from 12 April until 10 August 2008. NGV International is open 10am – 5pm, closed Tuesdays. Admission is free. This exhibition has been organised by the National Gallery of Australia and will travel to the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 22 August until 26 October and the Queensland Art Gallery from 7 November 2008 until 1 February 2009.

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