Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war.
Otto Dix 1891–1969: His Life and Works.
Between 1906 and 1910, he served an apprenticeship with painter Carl Senff, and began painting his first landscapes.
Between 1906 and 1910, he served an apprenticeship with painter Carl Senff, and began painting his first landscapes.
In 1910, he entered the Kunstgewerbeschule in Dresden, now the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where Richard Guhr was among his teachers.
In the autumn of 1915 he was assigned as a non-commissioned officer of a machine-gun unit on the Western front and took part in the Battle of the Somme.
In November 1917, his unit was transferred to the Eastern front until the end of hostilities with Russia, and in February 1918 he was stationed in Flanders.
In November 1917, his unit was transferred to the Eastern front until the end of hostilities with Russia, and in February 1918 he was stationed in Flanders.
He was discharged from service on 22 December 1918 and was home for Christmas. Dix was profoundly affected by the sights of the war, and later described a recurring nightmare in which he crawled through destroyed houses.
Subsequently, he referred again to the war in The War Triptych, painted from 1929 to 1932. ===Post-war artwork=== At the end of 1918 Dix returned to Gera, but the next year he moved to Dresden, where he studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste.
He became a founder of the Dresden Secession group in 1919, during a period when his work was passing through an expressionist phase.
In 1920, he met George Grosz and, influenced by Dada, began incorporating collage elements into his works, some of which he exhibited in the first Dada Fair in Berlin.
His depictions of legless and disfigured veterans—a common sight on Berlin's streets in the 1920s—unveil the ugly side of war and illustrate their forgotten status within contemporary German society, a concept also developed in Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. ===World War II and the Nazis=== When the Nazis came to power in Germany, they regarded Dix as a degenerate artist and had him sacked from his post as an art teacher at the Dresden Academy.
Visitors can see examples of his childhood sketch books, watercolours and drawings from the 1920s and 1930s, and lithographs.
His 1923 painting The Trench, which depicted dismembered and decomposed bodies of soldiers after a battle, caused such a furor that the Wallraf-Richartz Museum hid the painting behind a curtain.
He represented his traumatic experiences in many subsequent works, including a portfolio of fifty etchings called Der Krieg, published in 1924.
He also participated in the German Expressionists exhibition in Darmstadt that year. In 1924, he joined the Berlin Secession; by this time he was developing an increasingly realistic style of painting that used thin glazes of oil paint over a tempera underpainting, in the manner of the old masters.
In 1925 the then-mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer, canceled the purchase of the painting and forced the director of the museum to resign. Dix was a contributor to the Neue Sachlichkeit exhibition in Mannheim in 1925, which featured works by George Grosz, Max Beckmann, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Karl Hubbuch, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Scholz and many others.
He is buried at Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance. Dix had three children: a daughter Nelly (1923–1955) and two sons, Ursus (1927–2002) and Jan (born 1928). ==Otto-Dix-Haus Museum== Since 1991, the 100th anniversary of Dix's birth, the 18th-century house where he was born and grew up, at Mohrenplatz 4 in the city of Gera, has been open to the public as a museum and art gallery.
Subsequently, he referred again to the war in The War Triptych, painted from 1929 to 1932. ===Post-war artwork=== At the end of 1918 Dix returned to Gera, but the next year he moved to Dresden, where he studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste.
Visitors can see examples of his childhood sketch books, watercolours and drawings from the 1920s and 1930s, and lithographs.
Subsequently, he referred again to the war in The War Triptych, painted from 1929 to 1932. ===Post-war artwork=== At the end of 1918 Dix returned to Gera, but the next year he moved to Dresden, where he studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste.
Dix's paintings The Trench and War Cripples were exhibited in the state-sponsored Munich 1937 exhibition of degenerate art, Entartete Kunst.
His paintings that were considered "degenerate" were discovered among the 1500+ paintings hidden away by the son of Hitler's looted art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt in 2012. In 1939 he was arrested on the trumped-up charge of being involved in a plot against Hitler (see Georg Elser), but was later released. During World War II, Dix was conscripted into the Volkssturm.
The Trench was long thought to have been destroyed too, but there are indications the work survived until at least 1940.
He was captured by French troops at the end of the war and released in February 1946. ===Later life and death=== Dix eventually returned to Dresden and remained there until 1966.
After the war most of his paintings were religious allegories or depictions of post-war suffering, including his 1948 Ecce homo with self-likeness behind barbed wire.
In 1959 he was awarded the Grand Merit Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Verdienstkreuz) and in 1950, he was unsuccessfully nominated for the National Prize of the GDR.
In 1959 he was awarded the Grand Merit Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Verdienstkreuz) and in 1950, he was unsuccessfully nominated for the National Prize of the GDR.
In order to repair the underlying damage, the museum was closed in January 2016, and re-opened in December 2016 following restoration. ==See also== List of German painters ==Notes== ==References== Conzelmann, O., Otto Dix (Hannover: Fackelträger-Verlag, 1959) Hinz, Berthold (1979).
He was captured by French troops at the end of the war and released in February 1946. ===Later life and death=== Dix eventually returned to Dresden and remained there until 1966.
He received the Lichtwark Prize in Hamburg and the Martin Andersen Nexo Art Prize in Dresden to mark his 75th birthday in 1967.
Also in 1967 he received the Hans Thoma Prize and in 1968 the Rembrandt Prize of the Goethe Foundation in Salzburg. Dix died on 25 July 1969 after a second stroke in Singen am Hohentwiel.
Also in 1967 he received the Hans Thoma Prize and in 1968 the Rembrandt Prize of the Goethe Foundation in Salzburg. Dix died on 25 July 1969 after a second stroke in Singen am Hohentwiel.
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war.
Also in 1967 he received the Hans Thoma Prize and in 1968 the Rembrandt Prize of the Goethe Foundation in Salzburg. Dix died on 25 July 1969 after a second stroke in Singen am Hohentwiel.
He is buried at Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance. Dix had three children: a daughter Nelly (1923–1955) and two sons, Ursus (1927–2002) and Jan (born 1928). ==Otto-Dix-Haus Museum== Since 1991, the 100th anniversary of Dix's birth, the 18th-century house where he was born and grew up, at Mohrenplatz 4 in the city of Gera, has been open to the public as a museum and art gallery.
His paintings that were considered "degenerate" were discovered among the 1500+ paintings hidden away by the son of Hitler's looted art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt in 2012. In 1939 he was arrested on the trumped-up charge of being involved in a plot against Hitler (see Georg Elser), but was later released. During World War II, Dix was conscripted into the Volkssturm.
The collection also includes 48 postcards he sent from the front during World War I. The gallery also regularly hosts temporary exhibitions. The building was affected by a flood in June 2013.
In order to repair the underlying damage, the museum was closed in January 2016, and re-opened in December 2016 following restoration. ==See also== List of German painters ==Notes== ==References== Conzelmann, O., Otto Dix (Hannover: Fackelträger-Verlag, 1959) Hinz, Berthold (1979).
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