|
Otto
Dix transitioned from Expressionism to
Post-Expressionism soon after World War I.
His oeuvre is perhaps the most extensive and
diverse of all Weimar era artists. Manifestations
of Magic Realism can be seen in a number
of his paintings from the mid 1920s,
mainly in his
portraits. Dix
commented that he did not feel that an
artist could be truly objective, and his
approach to portraiture illustrates Roh's
comments about an artist painting "from
the inside out".
Most of Dix's portraits were not
commissioned. He sought out what he felt
were interesting subjects for his
paintings and invested each with unique
attributes, not always flattering. Dix
enjoyed some notoriety for his
penchant of making penetrating portraits,
often creating stereotypes rather
than sympathetic portrayals. His Verist
style is sometimes mistakenly described as
Expressionist, but would more
appropriately be labeled
anti-expressionist (he was outraged about
the superficiality of the younger
generation of Expressionists).
Franz Roh had a deep fondness for the
art of Otto Dix and felt that he was
in the leading artist in the Post
World War I period, not only in
Germany but in all of Europe. Only a
portion of Dix's oeuvre however fits
Roh's definition of Magic Realism,
mostly the portraits painted in the
mid 1920s. |
