Otto Dix, Skull (Scandal) From The War

Both artworks in Plate 1 (Otto Dix, Skull (Schädel) from The War (Der Krieg), 1924) and Plate 2 (Andy Warhol, Skull, 1976) express differences surrounding the historical movements and events that may have influenced their work and what impact they had on their art making. The structural frame deals with identifying and interpreting how artists may use signs or symbols in their artwork. The cultural frame is concerned with understanding how an artwork is influences by the values of the society it is produced in, and examining the historical and cultural context, religious and/or philosophical beliefs and any developments in science and technology. Both the structural and cultural frames are used to develop and speak ideas through expression
Dix’s nightmarish artworks are focused on the aftermath of battle in his art which included such things as the dead, dying, shell-shocked soldiers, graves and bombed-out landscapes; his memories of war. He directed the etching in Plate 1 towards heightening emotional and realistic effects of his images of horror, his prints were like an exorcism to him. Dix said, “Art is exorcism. I paint dreams and visions too; the dreams and visions of my time. Painting is the effort to produce order; order in yourself. There is much chaos in me, much chaos in our time.” The harsh lines and brutal textures in Plate 1 indicate a form of intensity and darkness, which speaks for the time he spent in the Nazi army. Dix spent three years on the frontline for the Nazi’s; facing some of the most violent sights a man can come across. Although he was eventually absorbed into Nazi propaganda, he continued to secretly paint
Critics of Warhol’s skull artworks constantly referred to the juxtaposition between the bright colours used to the incorporation of skulls, which are not necessarily a joyful object. As an artist, he was very interested in the shapes of the shadows on his skull artworks. The forehead, cheekbone and mouth all stand out whereas the nose and eye sockets are in a dark, deep shadow. In the Skulls series, there was a claimed Hamlet reference. It showed how he pondered mortality by the inclusion of himself in many of his portraits. Some art historians believe that the repetition of skulls in Warhol’s artwork acts as a symbol oh his near death shooting in 1968. His paintings after his recovery were his Guns, Knives, Crosses and Skulls. Some of the most powerful images that Warhol produced were influences by such events covering death in American and his near death experience. In the early sixties, he became extremely interested in death. Pictures of electric chairs, car crashes and race riots fascinated Warhol after searching through the media for new material. Having issues with the concept of death, as well as the physical occurrence of death, he became afraid of hospitals. After the nearly fatal shooting he was a victim of, he took the idea of death and created it into a more abstract