self-portraits, Otto Dix

Artwork Overview

1891–1969
self-portraits, 1914
Where object was made: Germany
Material/technique: oil; composition board
Dimensions:
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 70.5 x 54.6 cm
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 27 3/4 x 21 1/2 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 36 5/8 x 31 5/8 x 2 1/8 in
Credit line: Museum purchase
Accession number: 1961.0004
On display: Michaelis Gallery

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Images

Label texts

Empowerment
Created amidst the rumblings of the First World War (1914–1918), this painting presents a forceful exploration of self-identity. The artist’s brightly painted signature “DIX” provides a central point around which he presents himself in multiple guises. Are these expressions of military strength, the destructive forces of war, the creative power of art, or Dix’s own dreams and visions?
Empowerment
Created amidst the rumblings of the First World War (1914–1918), this painting presents a forceful exploration of self-identity. The artist’s brightly painted signature “DIX” provides a central point around which he presents himself in multiple guises. Are these expressions of military strength, the destructive forces of war, the creative power of art, or Dix’s own dreams and visions?
Debut
Otto Dix volunteered in Dresden, Germany, for military service at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. By the fall of 1915, he was a machine gunner and platoon commander in France, Flanders, Poland, and Russia and witnessed some of the most harrowing chapters of WWI. This untitled self-portrait is best understood as an exploration of the self in various guises that seems to culminate in two helmeted figures near the central signature in red.
Debut
Otto Dix volunteered in Dresden, Germany, for military service at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. By the fall of 1915, he was a machine gunner and platoon commander in France, Flanders, Poland, and Russia and witnessed some of the most harrowing chapters of WWI. This untitled self-portrait is best understood as an exploration of the self in various guises that seems to culminate in two helmeted figures near the central signature in red.

Exhibitions

Resources

Audio

Documents

Links

Citations

Broun, Elizabeth. Handbook of the Collection: Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art. Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, 1978.

Stokstad, Marilyn, ed. The Handbook of the Museum of Art. Lawrence, Kansas: The University of Kansas, 1962.

"The Register of the Spencer Museum of Art: The Humanist in the Art Museum." Vol. 5, no. 7, Spring (1979):

The Register of the Museum of Art, 3, no. 1, December (Lawrence, Kansas: The University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1963)

The University of Kansas Museum of Art. The Register of the Museum of Art 2, no. 6, June (1961):

Diederen, Roger, and Beatrice von Bormann. Dix Beckmann: Mythos Welt. Munich: Hirmer Verlag, 2013.

Stokstad, Marilyn, and Students. Images: 23 Interpretations. Lawrence, Kansas: The University of Kansas Museum of Art, 1964.

Lorenz, Ulrike. Otto Dix: Violencia y Pasión [Violence and Passion]. Mexico City: Goethe-Institut Mexiko, 2016.

Kanost, Elizabeth, ed., ed. Spencer Museum of Art Annual Report, Fiscal Years 2016 & 2017. Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, 2018.