6 - War of the Vulva: The Women of Otto Dix’s LustmordSeries

Summary

IN 1921, A SEX WORKER was murdered near German artistand World War I veteran Otto Dix's Dresden studio.According to his friend Kurt Gunther, Dix, whenquestioned by police, claimed that he probably wouldhave had to commit such a murder himself if he hadnot been able to paint his own murder scenes. Yearslater, Dix repeated this profoundly disturbingstatement to filmmaker Fritz Lang, confessing thathe would have to commit a sex crime in real life ifhe could not create his Lustmord (Sexual Death) series oncanvas.

This study seeks to understand what Maria Tatardescribes as “the drive to disfigure the femalebody—a representational practice that becomesevident in the many post–World War I works bearingthe name of Lustmord.”Otto Dix's Lustmordseries (Figs. 6.1–6.6) consists of six works createdbetween 1920 and 1922, one hundred years before therecent “#MeToo” movement. These works depictgraphic, grotesque imagery of viciously murderedwomen, traditionally understood to be sex workers.They are typically nude or in their underclothes, onthe bed or nearby on the floor, and in sexuallysuggestive poses with their legs splayed and theirgenitalia mutilated. Notably, in a diary he keptwhile fighting on the front in the First World War,Dix bitterly declared, “Eigentlich, wird im letztenGrunde blos aller Krieg um und wegen der Vulvagefuhrt” (Actually, in the final analysis all war iswaged over and for the vulva). The fact that Dixconnects war with women and sex and then laterproceeded to attack the vulva on canvas suggests arelationship of cause and effect––linking sexualviolence with power. In depicting the mutilation ofsex workers, Dix symbolically judged and executed agroup of women who are often perceived asrepresentative of the decaying morals of Weimarsociety and, according to Dix, of a war that, hebelieved, was caused by the vulva. The destructionof female genitals and of the female form as suchalso undermines long-held artistic notions offeminine beauty and the female nude in academic art.According to Dix, “Alle Kunst ist Meisterschaft”(All art is mastery), which suggests that theLustmord seriescould be read as an attempt to figuratively regainmastery over women; if not in the real world, thenat least on canvas.