Otto Dix (Born Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix) was a German painter, who became well known for his harshly realistic, satirical portrayals of Weimar Berlin. He was a huge part of the German Expressionist movement and along with George Grosz, he is considered one of the most influential artists of the
Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity).
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| 1 Self Portrait, Otto Dix 1912 |
Born in Untermhaus, Germany in 1891, Dix was heavily influenced by art from an early age. He spent long hours in the studio of his cousin, Fritz Amann. He then spent 4 years doing an apprenticeship with painter Carl Senff, before entering the Academy of Applied Arts in Dresden.
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| 2 Self Portrait with Carnation, Otto Dix 1913 |
When the First World War began, Dix readily volunteered his services, and was heavily influenced by the sights of war. He spoke of a recurring nightmare after the war, where he was crawling through destroyed houses. The two paintings below, are Self Portraits he did in the first year of the war. They were done on the same piece of paper. The first side, he has depicted himself in combat, with explosions and bright lights all around him, with his eyes wide open. The second side depicts him in full uniform and in darkness; a stark contrast to the prior painting.
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| 3 Self Portrait as a Soldier, Otto Dix 1914 |
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| 4 Self Portrait as a Soldier with a Gunners Helmet, Otto Dix 1914 |
The next painting is from 1922, titled "
Wounded War Veteran". You can see how his painting style has changed drastically after the war, as he starts to paint in his now signature style of emphasising flaws in his subjects.
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| 5 Wounded War Veteran, Otto Dix 1922 |
After the War, Dix returned home, before moving to Dresden, where he studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. He became a founder of the Dresden Secession group (a short lived collaboration of German Expressionists) in 1919. He met George Grosz in 1920 and began participating in
Dada (an early twentieth century international art movement that protested against war and the bourgeois) exhibitions and movements. He also participated in the German Expressionist exhibition that year.
He joined the Berlin Secession in 1924. He was developing an increasingly realistic style of painting that used thin glazes of oil paint over a tempera underpainting. His 1923 painting
"The Trench", depicting dismembered and decomposed bodies of soldiers after a battle, caused such agitation and commotion that the Wallraf-Richartz Museum where it was displayed, hid it behind a curtain and the museum curator was forced to resign a few years later.
Dix's work, like that of Grosz, his friend and fellow veteran, was extremely critical of contemporary German society. It drew attention to the bleaker side of life, and spared no detail on prostitution, violence, desperation, old age and death.
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| Prager Strasse, Otto Dix 1920 |
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| Skat Players, Otto Dix 1920 |
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| The Salon I, Otto Dix 1921 |
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| The Dancer Anita Berber, Otto Dix 1925 |
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| Three Prostitutes on the Street, Otto Dix 1925 |
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| Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia Von Harden, Otto Dix 1926 |
http://www.ottodix.org/index/catalog-paintings Viewed 28/11/14
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