Who is Otto Dix?
Wilhelm Henrich Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and of the brutality of war.
His cousin, painter Fritz Amann, and the hours Dix spent at Amann’s studio influenced Dix’s ambition and decision to become an artist.
Dix studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts during the early 20th century. After that, he served in WW1. Dix, who received an Iron Cross for his military service, was deeply affected by what he saw during the war and subsequently expressed his horrors through etchings and paintings.
Later, Dix moved back to Dresden and became a founder of the Dresden Secession group, during a period when his work was passing through an expressionist phase. Dadaism inspired Dix to incorporate collage elements into his work.
During WW2, the Nazis regarded Dix as a degenerate artist and had him removed from his post as an art teacher at the Dresden Academy. He was forced to join the Nazi government’s Reich Chamber of Fine Arts. At this time, Dix was forced to promise he’d only paint inoffensive landscapes (although he did still create some allegorical paintings that criticized Nazi ideas).
Dix was captured by French troops at the end of the war and released in February 1946. He eventually returned to Dresden, and after the war, most of his paintings were religious allegories or depictions of post war-suffering.
