A veteran of World War I, Otto Dix emerged traumatized by his experience of trench warfare. The term “unflinching” has sometimes been used to describe the cold eye that Dix cast on humanity, but in the three works from Dix’s rare print portfolio Zirkus, we can also see his darkly humorous side. From the smug and brutal self-confidence of The Disdainers of Death, to the freakish Balance Act, and the macabre showmanship of a magician conjuring up a spider woman in Illusion Act, Dix uses the circus to underscore the seedy elements of postwar Weimar society.