Portrait of Mrs. Martha Dix

In the nineteen-twenties, the portrait became a favorite subject of innovative artistic strategies. In reflecting on the essentials, the artistic moment shifts more emphatically than ever between model and likeness. And yet, the individualizing moment is retained despite stylizing representations in female portraits, such as those by Otto Dix and Rudolf Belling seen here. In Bildnis Frau Martha Dix (Portrait of Mrs. Martha Dix), whom Dix married in 1923, the artist emphasizes, for instance, not only her distinctive facial features, but also her avant-gardist haircut. The monochrome color scheme and the accentuation of the two-dimensional image surface support her seemingly iconic presence as does the concomitant exaggeration and simultaneous reduction of details.