Frauenkopf
Date: 1925 ; Berlin , Germany in terms of modern geography
Art form: Painting
Dimensions: 39.5 X 30 cm (15.55 X 11.81 in)
'Frauenkopf' (Head of a prostitute), watercolour and Indian ink on paper, 1925.
"The idea of the painting is to truthfully depict prostitution in all its gruesome and dehumanizing effects, to castigate it as a social evil, and to convincingly portray its consequences, which are devastating to body and mind.- (Otto Dix, quoted in: Schmidt, Diether: Otto Dix im Selbstbildnis, Berlin 1981, p. 202.)
His painting mercilessly portrays a bony, angular figure, the face is frozen into a mask under the white face powder and copious rouge, lipstick and eyeshadow. The unkempt, straggly hair flowing down around the face, the low forehead, the protruding chin and the overemphasized thickness of the lips give the countenance a primordial or animalistic quality. In depicting the subject of the harlot, Dix aimed to reduce taboos around the sexual. The artist's interest in the motif stems from his own libidinousness, so Dix paints his own experiences and not mere objects. In 1923, Dix even had to stand trial for these kinds of "indecent" works.
Source: Wettmann Art
