What caught my attention with Otto Dix is how he was a leading figure of ‘The New Objectivity’. The way he portrayed society and the people in Weimar society was truthful and ruthless, unafraid to make a social criticism and a statement. His traumatic experience in the war gave him the most poignant first hand experience of the flaws of human society and how it can go deeply wrong. Learning about the baseness of humanity and the violence which we can bring which is far away from perfection or cohesion clearly demonstrated to him that society was wrong and humans were awful. This is why his work is important since he was able to experience something by the hands of humans which a lot of young artists cannot experience today. Therefore he had an emotional drive which was unique to his time.

Such as this piece The Skat Players – Card Playing War Invalids, 1920. This depicts three mutilated war veterans playing cards. Their disfigured bodies a comment on the way that soldiers who has sustained injuries were treated and shunned in society, also demonstrating the economic crisis that had taken hold of the country and the poverty which came along with the sanctions of the Treaty of Versailles.

 

 

The encouragement of feelings of triumph and patriotism would have been rife in German society post-war, brought forward by politicians and important figures however clearly it would have been a lot different to what was expected however if this was pointed out it would cause uproar. Rather than celebrate Germany Dix dealt with issues such as prostitution, violence, old age and death. This was the real Germany which people lived in, maybe not the elite, but the vast percentage of the population would have lived been faced by the hardships of a bleak life, especially post-war. Contemporary German society did have an ugly side which was part of day to day life. This is the important point which I intend to bring forward, there is always an ugly side to society. Today, we are humans of consumerism and have become excessively vain. There is nothing worse than us, we are ignorant, selfish and obsessed with ourselves whilst there are big problems with the world that need to be fixed. However the world becoming a better place is a far off concept that cannot be obtained unless there is an extreme change in the chemistry of the modern man. 

I can criticise society as much as I can but I am also part of the issue, it is the way that I have been brought up in a society hardwired to be this way. If I am not driven and do not go along with the conditions of society then I cannot make money, and if I cannot make money I cannot live a content life. Additionally as humans are naturally social, today we have to work hard to maintain and image and to have friends, I have to look a certain way, have as many social media followers and so on. Then considering other issues such as global warming of which many of the consequences are now irreversible. Then problems with pollution, poverty, overpopulation, ethical issues as well. The plethora of problems which we face is ridiculous, however this is the way that the modern humans lives. A company may produce ethically sourced products with biodegradable packaging and consider each problem but will the big corporations catch on? It is a time-consuming and expensive route to go down especially for the billion dollar corporations, however, for the world to go round their primary concern is the bottom line. No matter if they do something ethical it is always to boost their own image and to show that they are being ethical and thus promoting themselves more to the consumer. Again there are many arguments you can make for and against these very brief points, however it is clear that this is the way that the modern human is hardwired. 

It is all okay to moan about things but how do we actually change? It is clear what the problems are but how do we target them? That is where I am lost, there needs to be a worldwide change, however the is not denying our natures. We are naturally animalistic and beastial as illustrated by Freud, but we need to control this, is suppressing our basic desire the way to live today? We need to work harder to suppress our Id, the Eros drives our consumer lifestyle and the Thantos brings the war and stop acting directly according to our Ego which just brings us to society’s satisfaction. The Superego needs to be heightened and we need to think properly with our actions and consider morality. Does this mean that humans need a vital turn, to evolve, in order to bring society into the realm of sustainability and to what is intrinsically ‘good’.