The Great War and the End of Ideals

Reading “The Great War, the Broken War-body and Modernism in the Works of Otto Dix” was extremely interesting to me. It explained the link between World War I and the birth of new art form Dadaism.

World War I really was a departure from earlier wars. In past wars, skill and knowledge would greatly increase the chances of survival. Men who were a good shot had an advantage over the enemy. Men who knew the terrain and spots to hold down had an increased chance of survival. Generally, men were killed by individuals and their bullets. A man aimed at a man, pulled the trigger, and killed him. It was as if he had won an individual fight; he had bested that man. I believe that contributed to the romanticism surrounding those wars. They were a sort of proving ground for men; a place where they could show their worth and becomes heroes. It was almost like a competition. In World War I however, a man pushed a button that would send a bomb to fragment 300 men. He had not proven himself or been a hero. He had not displayed marksmanship with a gun, dexterity with a sword, or cunning knowledge that bested the enemy. He had simply pressed a button. Likewise, the men killed were not worse soldiers than he; they were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, and were now fragments; less men than mere combinations of muscle, bone and skin. The progression of technology had made the killing and maiming of men much more cruel, efficient, and gruesome on a large scale. It seems as though the war was often more of a conflict between man and machine than man vs. man.

Man vs. Mortar
Man vs. Tank
Man vs. Hand Grenade
Man vs. Mustard Gas

More so than any war before, fate determined those who lived, those who lived maimed, and those who died. With bombs, mortars and gas dropping from the sky there was little anyone could do to increase survival. Fate rather than skill and knowledge had become the determinant for success and survival. A 5 star general and a private would be just as likely to die if placed in the same position. This destruction of the individual in war is what shattered the dream of the romance and glory of war and serving your country. This philosophical change in attitude towards war can be seen in the art of the time. Compare this Romantic painting of the French Revolution to the Dadaist etching of World War I.

The first is glorious. These people have bested the enemy, won the war, and carry their flag to victory. These people are portrayed as heroes; they struggled through an intense battle but because of their heart, might, ,mind and strength were able to persevere. Now compare it to the second painting of the Stormtroopers. They are fearsome and grotesque. While they may be on their way to victory like the French above, they are certainly not portrayed as heroes. They are scarcley even human. And that is what I believe was the main difference of World War I. It removed the humanity from war. Rather than acting as individuals men became cogs in the war machine, extensions of military technology. Machines such as tanks, bombs and mines became the deciding factors in war; not the extent of the infantry’s skill and training. A bomb launched by a 5 year old or General Patton would kill the same amount of people. Men themselves became useful only as a body count, an indicator of whether their nation was victorious or defeated.  

Post-war Dadaist art also echoes with the changes from World War I. As the war ended, millions of young men were sent mentally, emotionally, and physically shattered. To repair their broken bodies, men were given prosthetic limbs and had holes in their faces replaced with painted metal. This once again shows the dehumanizing nature of the war. Even after the conflict, many men were part man part machine! This is displayed brilliantly in The Skat Players.

This portrays several veterans who have been “fixed” with machine parts trying to return to the their prior lives. It is possible only to a certain extent, as they must make grotesque adjustments such as holding cards with their feet.  

Dadaist art can defiantly be seen as a metaphor for World War I. With the Great War former ideals, standards, and norms were shattered, leaving only chaos. Dadaism was a commentary on this chaos. It realized that the world had changed, moved on. Things could never go back to the to the way they had been, with romantic and realistic paintings portraying man in an elevated state. Therefore Dada artists moved on too. Their art became chaotic, grotesque and disillusioned. The primary complaint against the Dada art is that it makes no sense, is just a messy assortment of colors, figures and images.

But then again, does one man pressing a button to end the lives of 500 strangers make sense? Does watching men’s lungs burn from the inside out from mustard gas make sense? And as for the complaint that Dada art is just a messy assortment of images and colors, look at a battlefield, isn’t it just a messy collage of body parts, scrap metal, dirt and blood?