Otto Dix (1891-1969)

Dix's work during the inflation years of the Weimar Republic catalogues the exotic and debauched extremes of human behavior during a unique period of desperation and frivolity. Like many Expressionist artists, the gaudy yet glamorous world of the circus fascinated the artist. These performers, somewhat akin to the gladiators of ancient Rome, often risked their lives every time they stepped into the ring. It was this daring and dangerous aspect of circus life that Friedrich Nietzsche had used allegorically in Also Sprach Zarathustrat and for Dix—a war veteran and disciple of Nietzsche—it was also this feature of the circus that held particular appeal. Additionally, the circus performers were outsiders, who lived a life free from the moral constraints of modern society. For Dix, this was a model for the way everyone should live.
With its flowing lines and dramatic washes of bright color, Dompteuse is from a series of watercolors which Dix executed in 1922, when he had just arrived in Dresden. Dressed in a tightly corseted costume, complete with a tiara and large blue feather on her head, a skull buckle on her belt, a rose at her breast and a cape at her neck, with a whip in one hand and a cap gun in the other, the female lion tamer embodies all the gaudy glamour and cheap exoticism—and eroticism—of the circus performer. The lion itself, over which the subject dominates, is not present, adding an ambiguous sexual connotation to the scene. The subject is restrained by her costume, yet wild in her gestures; simultaneously beautiful and grotesque in the raw power she exudes.
Dix’s critical gaze is acute despite the stylization of the character which borders on the absurd. As Karsten Müller has written, “With his analytical eye, Dix distills the universally valid aspects out of the popular, trivial, and kitschy, the sensational and the entertaining. No matter whether they are found in backrooms or circus arenas, on dance floors, sidewalks, or stages at fairs, his protagonists are ultimately standing on the boards that stand for our world” (Otto Dix, exh. cat., Neue Galerie, New York, 2010, p. 173).