The artwork, titled “Stormtroops Advancing Under Gas,” was created by Otto Dix in 1924. This piece belongs to the Expressionism art movement and falls under the genre of battle painting. It is part of the series “The War (Der Krieg),” which was also completed in 1924.
In the artwork, a visceral representation of soldiers wearing gas masks dominates the scene. The figures are rendered with stark intensity, embodying the horrors and dehumanization of war. The soldiers advance through a desolate landscape, wielding weapons and shrouded in a heavy, oppressive atmosphere that evokes the use of chemical warfare. The gas masks, with their round, haunting eye holes, serve as a powerful symbol of the industrial nature of modern combat and its impact on the human condition. The dark and grim tones used by Dix further emphasize the trauma and devastation experienced during wartime.
