Mr. Domino
Art Appreciation
04 October 2017
Otto Dix: The Skat Players Krieg hat uns alle verändert. German for “the war changed us all”. I think that sentence was very illustrative of the surprising artwork from Otto Dix. I loved the piece The Skat Players. I think this piece represented so much more than just the authors style or the war. Using his personal events and knowledge he gave the world a chance to experience the things he did in his life. All those events through one collage/oil painting done on canvas. Dix had a very interesting story, his piece, The Skat Players gave a message for the time period, and the underlying ideas presented in this piece were impeccable. Otto Dix was a very odd man. Known for …show more content…
It was very jumbled and chaotic. I think Dix done this common collage practice to represent the disordered style of war. The missing limbs showed the impact of the war on the soldiers, and these having to be replaced by wooden limbs show the soldiers are not as capable as they used to be. Although I strongly believe that is the reason for the distorted limbs, it could be identified as the term “an eye for an eye”. In war Dix hurt soldiers of the opposing sides only to get hurt himself. Also along that thought process, I wondered if Otto Dix incorporated the phrase “cost an arm and a leg” into the piece. The war obviously did cost an arm and a leg in the economical and physical aspect. I could very much attach each of those phrases to this collage. The vets are playing Skat as can be assumed by the title, but this has an underlying purpose. Also told in the GDHI article, “Skat… was also played by soldiers in the trenches during World War I.” Playing Skat is what the soldiers typically done to pass time. It could be inferred that the vets are now just passing time (they are incapable of doing much else because of their disabilities) in misery like they were in the trenches. These retired soldiers could be reliving the brutal memories of the time spent in the trenches in other words. The light in the corner is a great representation to me. I think this is to be viewed as the positive in the world, but