Otto Dix volunteered for the German army and served for three years during World War I on both the Eastern and Western Fronts, where he experienced first-hand the conflict’s unprecedented violence and destruction. On his return to Germany, Dix became actively involved with the most radical artists’ groups, first the Dresden Secessionists, and then Dada in Berlin. This painting was made only one year after the war’s end as Germany was in the throes of revolutionary fighting following the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the establishment of the democratic Weimar Republic (1919–33). The kinetic energy of Dix’s composition is marshalled to express the savagery of Leda’s rape by the swan—the animal avatar of the Greek god Zeus—pointing to the violence at the heart of classical Western culture.

Wall label, 2021.