Art

War by Otto Dix
This painting is important this time period because it probes the tormented memory of endless days in the muddy trenches and dugouts, living with lice and rats and the constant danger of all-out attack, snipers, and exploding shells. Many who had escaped death or dismemberment were mentally wounded forever by their experiences like Dix. I think that although this painting is pretty gruesome and horrific, it helps show what the soldiers faced in trench warfare. It is kind of creepy that death is watching over the painting and because of all the destruction.


Artillery Preparation by André Dunoyer de Segonzac
This is an example of a sketch drawn at the front. Segonzac (1884-1974) belonged to the group of camouflage artists and so worked on the front line. His sketchbook contains numerous on-the-spot drawings, which he often went back to and completed on his return behind the lines, and annotated in the manner of an autobiographical diary. I thought that this drawing was really interesting because it was drawn on the front lines of battle and depicts what really happened so it is not just an interpretation.

 
Gassed and Wounded by Eric Kennington
Kennington took his subjects from the daily life of the British troops, with always the same desire for truth, be it as painful as that revealed by this painting. This is a tightly-knit work, there is a sharp contrast between light and dark, and the postures of the bodies piled up in a narrow space are disturbing. I thought that this painting was both interesting and frightening because it shows just how bad things were for the soldiers in the war. It shows how badly they were wounded and that it happened to many of them.