During and after World War I, German art was doomed to portray the sufferings brought about by the cruelest of all human experiences, by the unforeseen savageness of modern warfare. Images of burned-down cities, dismembered soldiers, war machinery, tormented survivors and utterly disheartening representations of the effects of combat filled the works of German painters. Just as times were changing, so did the style of German art. As if urged by the need to convey emotions until then unknown, as if lacking the proper resources, artists such as Max Beckman (1884–1950), Otto Dix (1891–1969), or George Grosz (1893–1959) initiated what was labelled New Objectivity, stepping away from the more subjective tint of Expressionism to capture without any filter the ruthless atrocity of their days. Before these artists unveiled the horrors of the war and post-war urban life, Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966) predicted the collapse of German cities in his series of depictions of apocalyptic urban landscapes (Apokalyptische Landschäften, 1912-1916). These works still share truly expressionist features such as the use of well-defined colors, hectic brushstrokes, deformed, angular shapes and a layout that is undoubtedly influenced by an unsolvable inner confusion.
Otto Dix is one of the main representatives of World War I art in Germany. In his paintings, drawings, and prints, he tried to show the tragedy of war in all its dimensions, without the slightest hint of glorification or idealism. In his most famous collection of prints, The War (Der Krieg, 1924), he gathered the horrors of post-war Germany, focusing on the decadence of a society that turned its back on the victims and directed its efforts towards ignoring its own degeneration. Dix also produced a series of paintings imbued by warfare imagery. Modern war had turned out extremely more destructive than anyone had envisioned, and had annihilated any hint of admiration towards modern technology -a feeling shared by European society in the years before the conflict. If anything, what drove artists like Dix to bring warfare machinery to their artistic productions was some kind of fate-determined connection between humankind and war machines -created by humans, then used by these very creators to destroy themselves.
As one of the initiators of New Objectivity, Dix gradually moved away from purely expressionist techniques and incorporated features from Dadaism or Cubism. This picture is one of the first in Dix's work to engage with war imagery. Painted before he met face-to-face with the dreadful reality of the battlefield, it still reflects an unrealistic perception of war machinery. It combines an expressionist use of color and well-defined brushstrokes, sharp and angular, with a collage-style typically associated with Cubism. This is especially noticeable in the lower, left-hand corner of the painting, where behind the gun hide some human faces -somewhat expressionless, robotic-like- and some words and serial numbers are perceivable. These faces are entangled within a maze of screws, cogwheels and other mechanical parts of the machine gun, suggesting a one-and-same persona built of man and weapon. The central element of the picture is undoubtedly the machine-gun, which is enclosed by its own products -fire, shrapnel, explosions, all painted in that frantic expressionist way. At the top, building façades emerge amidst the gunfire. No one whole building can be identified, suggesting the destructive power of the machine-gun.
The mixture of styles, together with the fact that this is an early work, make it difficult to determine whether the painting is trying to convey only fear and destruction, or whether there is still a trace of wonderment towards mechanical and technological advancements. This is suggested by the way in which the explosive power of the gun is highlighted through the use of color and space within the picture. Men are small, insignificant behind the gun-monster. However, this could also be interpreted not as admiration but as a prediction of the tragedies to come. During the war, men would be reduced to nothing, exterminated by the brutality of The Mechanical -or is it the brutality of mankind? This work represents a remarkable example of the transition that German art experienced during the war years, and marks the beginning of the shift towards cruder, rougher, pitiless portrayals of life and society in the post-war era, a time that would not leave much room for looking into the future with a certain optimism.
As one of the initiators of New Objectivity, Dix gradually moved away from purely expressionist techniques and incorporated features from Dadaism or Cubism. This picture is one of the first in Dix's work to engage with war imagery. Painted before he met face-to-face with the dreadful reality of the battlefield, it still reflects an unrealistic perception of war machinery. It combines an expressionist use of color and well-defined brushstrokes, sharp and angular, with a collage-style typically associated with Cubism. This is especially noticeable in the lower, left-hand corner of the painting, where behind the gun hide some human faces -somewhat expressionless, robotic-like- and some words and serial numbers are perceivable. These faces are entangled within a maze of screws, cogwheels and other mechanical parts of the machine gun, suggesting a one-and-same persona built of man and weapon. The central element of the picture is undoubtedly the machine-gun, which is enclosed by its own products -fire, shrapnel, explosions, all painted in that frantic expressionist way. At the top, building façades emerge amidst the gunfire. No one whole building can be identified, suggesting the destructive power of the machine-gun.
The mixture of styles, together with the fact that this is an early work, make it difficult to determine whether the painting is trying to convey only fear and destruction, or whether there is still a trace of wonderment towards mechanical and technological advancements. This is suggested by the way in which the explosive power of the gun is highlighted through the use of color and space within the picture. Men are small, insignificant behind the gun-monster. However, this could also be interpreted not as admiration but as a prediction of the tragedies to come. During the war, men would be reduced to nothing, exterminated by the brutality of The Mechanical -or is it the brutality of mankind? This work represents a remarkable example of the transition that German art experienced during the war years, and marks the beginning of the shift towards cruder, rougher, pitiless portrayals of life and society in the post-war era, a time that would not leave much room for looking into the future with a certain optimism.