Otto Dix (1891-1969)

;I had to go to war.....I had to live through it. I had to experience what it was like when someone near me was suddenly hit by a bullet and fell...I am such a realist, I had to see it all with my own eyes....the hunger, the fleas, the mud, the shitting in one's pants with fear... To be crucified, to experience the deepest abyss of life....If you want to be a hero, you also have to affirm the shit: only through being there and experiencing for yourself can you become a hero.. (..)..War was a dreadful business, but nevertheless very powerful. I couldn't possibly miss it. In order to know something about men, you must have seen them in this unfettered state." (Otto Dix; Exh. cat Tate Gallery, London, 1992, p.73.)