#art, Otto Dix, German Expressionist Artist…

Otto Dix: German Expressionist Artist

Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (1891–1969) Born in Gera, skilled as a painter and printmaker, is an artist closely associated with the Expressionist and later New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) movements. His paintings depict the raw reality of war, social decay, and the fragility of human existence in the 20th century.

He studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. He started out by experimenting with Expressionism and Dada, and was influenced by artist George Grosz, among others. His service as a soldier during World War I deeply marked him and became the central theme of much of his later work.

His experiences fighting the war inspired paintings that depicted the brutality and devastation caused by war and is clearly seen in his etching «Der Krieg» from 1924… To highlight the moral collapse and inequalities of the post-war society he painted portraits of veteran, prostitutes and the urban poor. His work, which blended the emotional intensity of expressionism and the classical technique of the old masters, created an unsettling realism.

During the Third Reich, his work was labelled “degenerate art”. He was dismissed from his teaching position and forbidden from exhibiting.. After World War II, Dix was honoured, and recognized as one of the foremost German painters of the 20th century, remembered especially for his uncompromising examination of war and its aftermath. His work will stand, as he will as an artist, for their avant-garde intensity and technique. And this combination has ensured his enduring place in modern European art.

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