Etching is about torturing metal, generally with acid or a blade, to create an image. With Otto Dix, the process starts in the artist's brain and ends up in yours.Dix survived hell : "Der Krieg", WWI, the trenches, and the aftermath - the Weimarian madness that followed. His two series of haunted and haunting etchings contrast with the minimalist halls designed by Rem Koolhaas : death, decay, the nightmarish charge of Stormtroopers wearing gas masks, fake love for sale, the absurd freak show of veterans, either powerless (like this blind man who lost all arms and legs, surrounded by legs... including the one lifted by a dog as it passes by), or allzu machtlich ('Lustmord' as the ultimate PSTD ?)...
There's humor under the knife and the acid - the only way to escape total madness. But compared to this, even Max Beckmann looks like a Disney cartoon.
OTTO DIX - Critical graphics (1920-1924), War (1924) / 오토 딕스 - 비판적 그래픽, 전쟁
20100401-0530
F3, SNU MoA (Seoul National University Museum Museum of Art), Seoul National Uiversity, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, Korea
Seoul Village 2010
