The Fragmented Body Motif: Dix, Masson, Giacometti, Picasso

Abstract

The artists to be discussed in this section were strongly marked by the two World Wars, Dix and Masson by direct participation in battle, and Giacometti and Picasso by revulsion for what came to be condemned as one of the worst butcheries of all times. Of particular note, though, is the manner in which the violence and bereavement they experienced revived earlier phantasms of grief bound up with the imaginary (m)other. Shattered female forms — often linked to male sacrifice — are assembled into surrealist constructs or scattered over the surface of a disintegrated picture space.