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Lot Essay
In the last years of the war Dix 's style underwent a change. In Flanders and particularly when on the Eastern Front, he re-adopted the Cubo-Futurism that had characterised his work of 1915. By 1918 Dix's style had become highly apocalyptic and in many cases almost abstract as he split his war landscapes into a fusion of angular cubo-futurist forms that often revolved around a central vortex point.
Executed in 1918 Franzsisches Dorf ("French Village') is a particularly refined example of this style in Dix's work. A vibrantly coloured gouache that depicts the explosive energy of a French village that is seemingly in the process of being torn to pieces under an unseen bombardment Franzsisches Dorf is similar to George Grosz's work of the same period. In this powerful gouache Dix conjures a dynamic sense of simultaneity through his use of a series of contrasting angular forms that suggest many viewpoints and a dizzying sense of disorientation. However, Dix's work is unlike Grosz's in the rawness of his brushstrokes and in the way in which Dix seems to celebrate the raw energy of the scene that he depicts. Not only has Dix delighted in the clashing contrast of the vibrant colours he has used, but the whole composition hangs together like a Schwitters' Merzbild in one striking and harmonious abstract pattern of form.
Executed in 1918 Franzsisches Dorf ("French Village') is a particularly refined example of this style in Dix's work. A vibrantly coloured gouache that depicts the explosive energy of a French village that is seemingly in the process of being torn to pieces under an unseen bombardment Franzsisches Dorf is similar to George Grosz's work of the same period. In this powerful gouache Dix conjures a dynamic sense of simultaneity through his use of a series of contrasting angular forms that suggest many viewpoints and a dizzying sense of disorientation. However, Dix's work is unlike Grosz's in the rawness of his brushstrokes and in the way in which Dix seems to celebrate the raw energy of the scene that he depicts. Not only has Dix delighted in the clashing contrast of the vibrant colours he has used, but the whole composition hangs together like a Schwitters' Merzbild in one striking and harmonious abstract pattern of form.