I think one important detail in the last panel is that the man Dix is carrying has a bandage wrapped around his entire head. To me it seems like Dix is implying he doesn't even know if he is saving a friend or a foe. The lack of colour in Dix and the man may also suggest a lack of blood or humanity which could be lost as a result of the war, both literally (blood) and figuratively (humanity). These are superficial observations, (could be reaching) but just some things I noticed.

"soldiers arent heroes, theyre victims." is such a perfect way to put that

I had the chance to see Der Krieg at my local museum in 2019, and I guarantee that those 50 artworks were quite difficult to watch, but it was great nonetheless.

As I understand it; Dix was a highly regarded painter in Germany before the war. Afterwards, his work became less naturalistic, and more expressionist. His prints and paintings of the war are indeed horrifying - but that's exactly what war is. There is little nobility, gallantry, or glory to it - it's an abattoir - and Dix clearly conveyed that reality, as had Goya a century before. And this is why I so appreciate Expressionist art: it tells the truth. Even uncomfortable truths.

It's also crazy to consider that two artists participated in the Battle of Somme in 1916, for one who displayed the casualties of war in bold depictions of viscera and pronounced psychological trauma, and the other who so was deep into the fight he begged to not be removed from it. That same soldier-artist would display the former's artworks as "Degenerate Art" years later, in an environment he facilitated and repeated the same violence unto the world as the two had seen before.

It is so sad to see the great war being ignored by media. When they say 'the war' they think about the second world war. Though that was a horrific war too, it is important that we do not forget. Otto Dix captured that perfectly, even when the second world war hadn't begun. I would hope to see others recognize the great war, and all the others throughout history.

I saw this comment from a album called "Everywhere at the end of time" and it states "The best depiction of art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable" and seeing how people painted their experiences and traumatic events from war and it shows what they felt and did, it's heartbreaking

I'm a Northern French and therefore many towns in the titles are very familiar to me. It is very disturbing to think how those names only meant suffering, atrocities and trauma for him.

"War doesn't determine who's Right, Only Who's Left"

Dix’s paintings of damaged soldiers begging and playing cards after the war are some of my favourites. The aftermath and how he presented it left an impression on me as a young man.

I think you missed the biggest artistic reference in Dix's "Der Krieg"--it's a parody of Matthias Grunewald's Isenheim Altarpiece triptych. The men in predella are lying in repose like the body of Christ lies in repose in Grunewald's painting. Furthermore, the bullet-riddled corpse with his feet sticking up in the central piece of the triptych looks very similar to the crucified Christ in the Isenheim Altarpiece with similar body wounds. And to add even further reference, the skeleton mockingly pointing at the dead man points in a manner similar to John the Baptist pointing at the crucified Christ in Grunewald's piece. So what you see here is Dix inverting a piece of art displaying God's redemption of mankind into a piece of art that shows utter human destruction from which there is no end or escape.

Another excellent WWI artist is someone name Paul Nash. I watched a 26 episode 1964 documentary series about WWI and discovered him by accident. Both his works and the quote that made me interested in him was, "Nash didn't simply see an explosion, the explosion took place, inside Nash."

Wait this only has

It is not a coincidence his artwork is often used as cover art for "All Quiet on the Western Front". Similarly to his art, that book tells a story of soldiers going off into the unknown only to be met with the horrific brutality of war in the trenches.

I remember my first time seeing Goya's war prints. I'd never had more than a passing interest in art. I thought of it as a talent that others simply had and could profit off of. Seeing Goya's works, I couldn't help but feel him saying "Look! Look, you idiots! This is what war is and does!" While being overwhelmingly frustrated at his inability to do anything to stop it but highlight it.

I own a grapic novel Version of "all quiet on the Western front" with Dix's illustrations. Im very happy for him to get more recognition

"soldiers aren't Heros, they are victims"

10:54 if this man made it out alive and saw this art I think he'd be sorry to be a part of someone else's nightmare but grateful that he'd be remembered because of his work after so many decades

A few years ago my great uncle copied and (for the family only) published a booklet of some of my great grandad's sketches from WW1. He didn't draw anything gruesome or immediately distressing, but he did draw things like the makeshift graves of his friends, and the landscape just beyond the wire completely devastated.

"The Outpost In The Trenches Must Maintain The Bombardment at night" caught my eye immidiatly. We are in a trench, suraounded by seemingly nothing but death, destruction and chaos. From the viewers perspective it almost looks like we are observing the two only soldiers still alive, guarding what is the reminders of a trench, looking out for enemies, yet dispite all the distruction around them, we can't find out where it even came from. We can't see who the two men are fighting. You could interpret that 1. The two men are fighting a hopeless fight to win as it seems like the two are heavily outnumbered indicated by the damage done by the enemy or 2. that both are fighting a senseless war, as they are seemingly fighting over nothing, against only the night, with the moon being the only thing we can make out in the direction they point their rifles in.

I usually never comment on videos but I think the whole thing at 5:19 can be so much scarier if you know that the first gasmasks (the ones that were used in ww1) weren't always airtight and that many soldiers died still on battlefield using gas because of that fact Besides that when it was or got windy many soldiers still died after the gas because the wind dragged it to their side of the battlefield so it was very likely that you die as a soldier in ww1 when anyone used gas Also im sorry if I butchered a sentence as English isn't my first language

Dix. My favourite artist. He hid from nothing. The tryptych is just incredible. Not many can do this with mere paint and canvas. His work chills your bones. Thankyou. I would have liked to see some of his later work too.

Nocturnal Encounter With A Lunatic unnerves me, the image and title combine to evoke an almost primal fear

So underrated it’s insane

It seems I have not understood Otto Dix until 24th of February, when the war came into my house. Before, I used to find these images too grotesque, but now I see how realistic they are. In fact, nothing has really changed. The interesting thing is people studied war from pieces of art in the western culture, they mostly understood what people like Goya and Otto Dix told them, while in russia war is glorified, it is not about losses and fear there, but rather about the wish of violence and triumph

This was phenomenal and made me cry. Thank you! Dix's "Sturmtruppe geht unter Gas vor" is my favorite piece of art of all time, and I never got to see all the other works of his on the topic of war. Thank you!

I don't know how anyone could capture the horror and terror of the Great War. Otto Dix did an outstanding job of justifying the pain.

i had a pretty volatile early childhood, i was severely behind in development so when the state mandated i go to therapy the only way i could express myself was through “art”, that looked much like this. when i look at otto’s work i feel myself shrink back to that primordial state, dashing black crayon everywhere so hard i eventually snap it cleanly in two. this is a horror, or a disturbance i have not felt before

Absolutely devastating, I love this artist so much

I always thought that this level of pain, suffering, gore, decay and death was only able to be achieved in fiction (WR40K comes to mind) I find amazing (in a bad way) that this level of brutality can be achieved by us, something considered the Wrath of the gods in the 17th, 16th, 15th, century was a normal thing for soldiers on the 1900's, And all that was and is being achieved by us, by mere mortals, a line is crossed when is declared and the first world war pushed that line near its limits and the second pushed it even further. We know where the line is and it's up to us to make sure that line is never crossed again....

The editing in this videos is incredible. The low ambient music accompanying the horrors of war suddenly cutting to a beautiful soundtrack with the fog painting, with the two alternating between the pieces is such an impressive detail. The jumpscare of the gasmask drawing is incredibly. I genuinely hope Art History teachers take a look at your work, because this is quite amazing

The second panel of the Triptych to me illustrates the dissociation of the individual in war. The bodies blend into the background, only capturing the attention of the viewer through a mess of limbs. Even the observer is hidden under a mask.

i'm about to binge watch all your videos , i'm so glad i came across your channel , your videos are AMAZING.

Very good video. I wasn’t aware of Dix. I’m so moved by the art I’m about to cry. I’ve never cried over an art piece before but this was the saddest thing I’ve ever seen portrayed in my life.

Thank you for this. Awesome analysis and your oration is perfect.

8:37 to me the man in the gas mask looks more lost than he does in awe He looks like he's seeking the safety of his blanket to cope from the horror in front of him. Kinda like how war would turn many men into scared children seeking any comfort they can and such. idk I see a lot of innocence in him but that's just my own interpretation.

Very well done! My compliments on this achievement and sharing your knowledge. Thank you.

Dix sketched a self-portrait in ink on a brown paper bag called 'Me as a Soldier' as a gift for the owner of his gallery. He portrayed his face as 3 lines - 2 eyes and a mouth - between his helmet and the collar of his tunic, the arms of which cradle a machine gun like a baby. It is a picture of a monster.

This has easily become one of my favorite yt channels. Keep up the good work!

‘Wounded Soldier’ is the hardest one to look at. It’s the eyes. The eyes are terrifying. It’s what makes it more viscerally horrific than pieces like Guernica - there’s no symbolism. There’s no artistic commentary. It’s the eyes that don’t just stare - they pierce into yours.

I like how the images capture the things that affect the mind during critical incidents. Truly captures the peculiar things of PTSD or shell shock I’ve never had shell shock but I do have PTSD and the strange thing about it is the feelings they give about seemingly nothing. In contrast to some of the things I’ve seen (a mentally ill child drowning in blood, gunshot/puncture wounds, slashes/ deep cuts in flesh, (some of my own family members went through )) I was mostly affected by a fentanyl overdose of someone I barely knew. And I’m unclear why. But I do appreciate the art of the flare over the trenches because it captures the things the mind won’t release and for seemingly no reason. Truly and amazing artist and he captures the frustration of this very well.

This is a seriously awesome video, thank you for this man

Wow, not even a year after your video, we are witnessing those horror once again. You almost quote almost word for word a friend of in the military : "La guerre se n'est pas joli"

I think this video is very well done describing and showing how Dix was able to paint and convey the horrors of World War I and what he saw there. That being said, I’m a little surprised the video didn’t mention or show his post war paintings. In some ways they’re even more devastating considering their portrayal of veterans who are often physically and mentally scarred trying to reenter a society that either doesn’t know about or care about the horrors they saw and went through; as well as allusions to some folks who profited from the war while the soldiers were just used and spit out. Some really amazing antiwar social commentary from a time period (1920’s) when that was hardly commonplace.

Great video. I studied WWI in college and saw many horrible pictures but these drawings were worse yet also brilliant.

The works shown emphasizes why my grandfather never talked about WWI and why my father never talked about WWII. The horrors stayed with them long after the wars ended. Very good presentation, but I may have trouble sleeping tonight. That is how it should be least we were to ever forget.

The paintings are so varied, "Wounded Man" looks almost as if it was taken from Akira (the japanese film). It's all very hard to look at. Brings back memories of reading "All Quiet on the Western Front" by Remarque. 5:18 that's an interesting observation, it shows a great deal of empathy. The way you tie it togather with Goya is also very interesting. Whenever I see those Goya eyes, I feel like I'm gonna lose my mind. Scary stuff. PS: this is what I mean with the comparison to Akira, it's remarkable: ukposts.info/have/v-deo/rp9jjGOKond7rok.html (10:54 in your video)

These are some of the most incredibly haunting pieces Ive ever seen. Yet the strange beauty of them isnt lost either

Fantastic and very thought-provoking video!

Thank you for this video. These engravings were new to me. They remind me of those of Goya from the Napoleonic Wars in Spain, which I saw in Zaragoza where they made a huge impression. The grotesque inhumanity was the same - a hundred years previous to WW1, and a hundred years past that, it's still the same. The cruelty humans inflict on other humans is unfathomable - and apparently nothing changes there.

Just saw Der Krieg in Dresden last week. Absolutely harrowing… the scale of the painting really makes it so much more impactful. I recommend everyone to see it in real life, it’s incredible.

One of my favorite artists getting some love

This is the most excellent in depth consideration of how personal participation or observation of the brutality of war becomes the inspiration for skilled complex narratives in art. I have an understanding of the phase "the fog of war" as I functioned as a LRRP, 82nd Airborne Division of the Army, 1965-70: After each operation there is a "debriefing" and it was almost always "What you saw, didn't happen". The chaotic mix of "didn't happen" events arises after the events when one is supposed to be a well functioning member of society. I remember the phase "For V-Vet Andy and His Heart Attacks Because He Couldn't Speak and Nobody Would Listen Anyway" that is the title of an art work by the Native American Artist Rick Bartow (presently deceased). About 30 years after the experiences that chaotic mix expressed itself in my hand drawn animation (FIELD OF GREEN: A SOLDIERS ANIMATED SKETCHBOOK) and many drawings that attempt to recreate a sketchbook diary from the late 1960's. Thanks for the depth and sensitivity of this consideration.

I have watched this video 5 times, and it's still entretaining

Great video on an great artist and a great human - thank you very much.

Man I love when the YT algorithm ends up doing something good for once. Fantastic stuff. Subbed.

The tragedy of the Great War, exemplified by Dix's work, is the tragedy of our civilization self-destructing. Thank you for this brilliant video.

This is one of the most powerful art documentaries I have seen.

Wow I absolutely loved this! I mean, not the subject matter, but the video. Thank you! Also, great editing!

I'm blown away by some of these art works!

Dix also painted another one of my favorits: "Les Joueurs de Skat" portraying wouded sodiers playing cards. Its unusually dense, he didn't only use paint but did a sort of collage of newspapers,wraps, metal etc.

Sadly, so many people have suffered through war, and so many people have shown what terrible atrocities against humanity have happened as a result of war, and yet even more people have always called for war. It really is a great tragedy; not one of glory now past, but one where there was no glory to begin with. Otto Dix, and many others like him, are simply akin to theater critics giving a synopsis of a play. Thank you for reading my philosophy.

We talked about his paintings In our History advanced class when we were also showed video captures of shellshocked veterans. It was hard to watch but it made talking about the first world war more personal and 'real' if you know what i mean. Art is a great way to really show what is going on in people's lives even if they're long gone

11:45 this quote reminds me very much of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-5, and I draw parallels between Dix's and Pilgrim's eventual "compliance" or "acquiescence" with this supposed fundamental of humanity (which of course Vonnegut heavily railed against).

Brilliant. I saw Dix's works first in 2014 in Erlangen, Germany. The biennal Comic Salon in Erlangen featured many examples of graphic art about WWI which started 100 years earlier in their exhibitions. No other artist there could compete with Otto Dix. Since then, he has been one of my most admired depictors of war. To me, he is for painting and art what Remarque (who wrote All Quiet on the Western Front) is to literature.

a very interesting video good job with the edetting and explaining of the images

0:07 WAR, WAR NEVER CHANGES

I life near the city witch has a his work and Der Krieg in the museum. I still remember seeing this Painting as a small child and always running back to look at it again, he left a so enormous Impression on me, in my thinking and in my art that I will always be grateful for his art (but ˋm terrible sorry that he had to see such horrible things)

Thanks for the video

The Der Krieg prints remind me of this anti war book my grandfather owned. It was published in the 30s and it contained hundreds of gruesome photographs showing the horrors of WWI.

Wonderful video

Great presentation.

What brillant art history and comparison "soldiers are victims not heroes" what truth!

My favorite artist

0:42 i think i know some oposition: "war, war never changes" ~some dude fallout 4

Speechless.

Great video!!

Went to see some of this dudes art on display in a museum where i live. They’re quite small pieces but its actually quite jarring to see them in person

I watched this at night and i cried looking at this art. If pain and suffering could be drawn it would be this. Rest in eternal peace to all those who perished in WW1.

Hello, I have been following this channel for a long time. I am very interested in these videos introducing art works. This kind of video increases my knowledge and helps me learn English. Your speaking speed and pronunciation are suitable for listening practice. You can also follow the video. I'm glad I can find such a channel. Thank you🥰

Just found your channel, Its amazing so far and I just sent one of your videos to a good friend. I just wanted to comment that I totally thought you were going to say "War, war never changes." at the start, I play too much fallout.

Inspiring upload about this artist & the subject. Food for thought is the least of what can be said about the artwork & it's subject 🍸

8:02 to me it looks more like the soldier is sitting in the trench where all the carnage happend. He has a blanket /tarp wrapped around him to protect him more from rain and mud. To me this makes it even more horrific since he has to stay inbetween al this carnage

Dark and deep. Moving.

To be honest, if the paintings creep us out… imagine what Dix saw during the Battle of the Somme or the Kasierschlatt in person… which were some of the bloodiest battles of World War One. You can really tell that what he saw was pretty much hell.

Great stuff keep it up

Saw a gallery of his in Montreal a while go. The first large room was just wall to wall his drawings from the trenches. It was Unreal.

8:29 As a child I was the one who took care of the dead cows because my Dad couldn't stand the smell but it didn't bother me. I remember going down into the area where I kept them. It was this hole in the ground probably 200 feet across. Had a creek going through it and was mostly scrub brush. Hot and humid, bugs buzzed around everywhere. No real shade. Except this one old tree where the previous farm had put their dead. I dug down a couple feet and still hit bones. But to stand there surrounded by my corpses with their various stages of decay and flies buzzing wasn't the most pleasant in the heat. I remember standing down there wishing for a breeze because the air was hanging stagnant, the sickly sweet smell was almost overwhelming. Checking my corpses was always fun, see how decayed they were. I would put the skulls in the creek, the old skulls that had rotted enough. Usually bugs crawled out, one time I picked up a skull by the eye socket and a yellowjacket crawled out and stung me :( Sometimes when I took the bodies back I would put them in trees or on abandoned stuff. It was neat to watch them fall apart and left kind of ruins I guess. My favorite was this head and spine that stayed in a tree for two years IIRC, took a lot of pictures of that one. But anyway, this picture reminds me of my corpse pit. I can't imagine how horrible it would be if it were people though.

One of my favorites shown here is “Ration Carrying Near Pilkem”. At the bottom we have soldiers crawling on all fours, hunched over like some feral animal; as you look past that you see it get lighter and lighter, until you see the sun. The sun radiates light with such bold solid lines. With its stark contrast, it almost appears otherworldly, or even heavenly. On your journey up to that, you can’t help but notice a human skull or a skeletonized upper half of someone. Almost as if to say “death is the only way to heaven”. This shows the stages of life in war; first monsters, then death, and finally peace in heaven above.

Perhaps I am being biased because of the triptic presentation. But it is remarcable to me the similarities , specially in the colour palette, this has to the garden of earthly delights. War before the first world war, to my understanding, was perceived as honourable. Of course cruel and painful but ultimately heroic. That is the heaven this soldiers are walking towards. A kind of Valhalla where death is one full of honour and glory. Yet we see the reality of it all in the second panel. We see actuallity. We see war as lived in the moment. That would be equivalent to earth as lived by Dix in those days. Hell, to keep the methaphore going, would be whatever comes after. Earth after war cannot be anything but death. Cannot be anything but hell.

impactante!

Amazing video

I loved the elaboration "as if death was orchestrating it"

Oooo I surely love Dix~

7:35 the hunches over body also has a wreath of barbed wire around his head, reminiscent of Christ’s crown of thorns, possibly symbolising how in war, even God seems to be dead

Incredible

I'm giving a presentation on exptressionism tommorow (mostly literature tho with a few words towards art,musik and film)and this video gave me a few more thoughts on the art side of the the subject

The description of Otto Dix's message, "war is ugly, war is shameful, soldiers are victims" and so on brings to mind the works of Tomas Lea and others during the Second World War. Once again the disturbing images are painted from firsthand experience and grab one's attention immediately. Unfortunately most of the art of more recent conflicts are back to glorifying the war and depicting soldiers as impenetrable superheroes, not that there aren't artists communicating the horror (Franciszek C. Kulon and Mircea Suciu, for example), but it seems people would rather refuse to acknowledge the truth. Hopefully I'm wrong, and if anyone can think of other contemporary artists who don't glorify war, I would be glad to hear about them.

"trajedy"

I have been reading many accounts of WW1. What makes it so shocking is that in the trenches, killing was casual, like going to work. These men were able to sublimate death, live with it, even miss it in some cases when on leave. Much of the killing was arbitrary, by shells which could get you anytime, there were no heroics, no skills no malice, completely meaningless. It is no coincidence that formalised religion started to collapse after the war.