The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 20, 2024
Portrait of a Woman
1923
(German, 1891–1969)
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1954.349
© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Catalogue raisonné: Karsch 62
Location: not on view
Description
Otto Dix portrayed urban inhabitants in postwar Germany in a brutal and unforgiving manner. This woman is dressed in the finest fashions, her hair stylishly cropped and her outfit adorned with a fur collar and a heron-feathered hat. Yet her mouth has been slashed into a grotesque smile, a sign of a vicious attack that was commonly carried out by street gangs, particularly on prostitutes. Dix mercilessly satirized postwar society with images of prostitutes bloated from the profits of their own commerce—among the many bodies victimized by the moral and physical corruption of war.- Graphic Discontent: German Expressionism on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 14-May 27, 2018).Cross Section: Graphic Art in Germany after the First World War. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 10, 1989-January 7, 1990).Eastward from the Rhine: Romanticism to Abstraction, 1800-1925. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 12-September 9, 1984).German Expressionist Graphics. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 7-October 5, 1980).Prints and Drawings, 1916-1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 20-July 24, 1966).
- {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Woman|url=false|author=Otto Dix|year=1923|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.349