MAX BECKMANN AND OTTO DIX

MAX BECKMANN AND OTTO DIX

NEUE GALERIE

War is hell. That truism underscores the first-ever pairing of the entirety of two of the most powerful visual records of World War I: "DerKrieg' (War), 1914, a series of fifty etchings by Otto Dix; and "Die h�lle" (Hell), 1919, eleven lithographs by Max Beckmann. Both artists enthusiastically volunteered to fight in the conflict-Dix serving for four years in the trenches and Beckmann for one year as a medic before being discharged following a nervous breakdown. And both cited-albeit in very different ways-a philosophical underpinning. (Dix referred ironically to Friedrich Nietzsche's dictum "Die and become!" while Beckmann claimed …