The work that can be admired at the GAM is Otto Dix's first mixed media work. Rhomboid in shape, it immediately reveals the artist's unconventional spirit.
In the middle of a swirl of blue waves and sandy cords, sailor Fritz Mueller looks at us smiling. The frame has lost much of its original decoration but traces still remain of the small decorations that the artist had fixed to the wooden margins almost as if he wanted to go beyond the narrow limits of the canvas.
Fritz's hair is a map of his hometown, Pieschen, the river port of Dresden. The sailor's pointed face is crossed by a rainbow, on his chest he sports a tattoo: a naked woman balanced on the world waving the American and German flags; the goddess Fortuna.
But how many places has our sailor visited?
America with the eagle and the stars and stripes flag, a Native American in his village, a port with South American banners. Many were the Germans who in the late 19th and early 20th century emigrated in search of fortune to the United States, Brazil and Argentina.
In another corner of the picture we recognise the pyramids, the sphinx and the Turkish flag.
On the way down, an African village, perhaps in Cameroon or Tanganyika, territories that were colonies of the German empire for a few decades.
Moving up, towards another edge of the painting, a Chinese dragon towers above a pagoda, fleshy flowers and young Oriental women.
In front of his eyes, Fritz has a portrait of a busty woman in a dress reminiscent of Spain, a love lived or dreamed and the opening lines of Goethe's verses reminiscent of Italy: Kennst du das Land (wo die Zitronen blühn) / Conosci tu la terra (dove die Zitronen blühn) / You know the land (where the lemons bloom)
The painting is dated 1919, Germany has been defeated, the Kaiser has gone into exile, but what is striking today is the naive flavour of the painting that triggers the unconscious desire to collect glass balls, the ones with snow in them that are bought in souvenir shops.
- The work: Otto Dix, (Der) Matrose Fritz Müller aus Pieschen
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