Trichterfeld bei Dontrien, von Leuchtkugeln erhellt (Shell Craters at Dontrien by the Light of Flares), from Der Krieg

Artist Otto Dix (German, 1891-1969)

Date1924

Dimensions(Sheet) H: 13 15/16 in. (35.4 cm); W: 18 5/8 in. (47.3 cm);
(Image) H: 7 9/16 in. (19.2 cm); W: 10 in. (25.4 cm)

MediumEtching and aquatint.

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Barbara Sunderman Hoerner

Object number

2004.70

Not on View

Label TextOtto Dix experienced the horrors of trench warfare fighting on the frontlines of the First World War. In the fifty-one prints he made for Der Krieg, he mercilessly attacked the chauvinism and self-delusion with which the war continued to be presented. He depicted blasted landscapes, brutalized and mutilated soldiers, and rotting corpses, stripped of any romantic, heroic, or nationalist sentiments and without any message of hope or redemption. In the eerily beautiful landscape depicted here, shell craters lit by flares stretch into the nocturnal void, like flowers, like wounds.Published Referencesc.f. Otto Dix: Das Graphische Werk (Hannover: Facketranger-Verlag Schmidt-Kunster, 1970)Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Between the Wars: European Works on Paper 1914-1945, Sept. 5, 2008 - Dec.31, 2008.

Toledo Museum of Art, New Works on Paper, Dec. 2005 - Mar. 5, 2006.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Great War: Art on the Frontline, Jul. 25-Oct. 19, 2014.

Toledo Museum of Art, Werner Pfeiffer Selects, Feb. 13-May 10, 2015.