The cycle is inspired by Goya’s Disasters of War series, and evokes the difficulty of forgetting the horrors endured in wartime: “the fact is that, as a young man, you don’t realise how profoundly you have been marked by it all. For at least ten years I used to dream about crawling through ruined houses, (seriously), through corridors so narrow I could barely get through. My dreams were always full of ruins…”

These etchings explores a variety of macabre themes, forming an abominable chronicle of combat. Destruction, damage and mutilated bodies are shown in murky chiaroscuro, creating an apocalyptic atmosphere. Many of these scenes of death and desolation are set in the Somme or elsewhere in Picardy, where Otto Dix served.

Otto Dix shows no indulgence towards the soldiers he depicts, his former comrades-in-arms. Far from celebrating acts of heroism, he emphasises the destructive savagery of war. The artist devoted much of his career to bearing witness to the deleterious effects of war on people, nature and our shared heritage. In 1933 the Nazis removed Dix from his teaching position at the Academy in Dresden. His works were included in the infamous exhibition of “degenerate art”(Entartete Kunst), and much of his oeuvre was destroyed. Otto Dix moved first to Hegau, in Baden-Württemberg, and later to Hemmenhofen on the banks of Lake Constance in 1936, where he turned his attentions to religious themes.