Otto Dix(1891-1969)
From 1898 to 1906, Dix attended elementary school in Untermhaus near Gera. At the same time, his artistic talents were encouraged by the drawing teacher Ernst Schunke. From 1906 to 1914 he completed an apprenticeship as a decorative painter with Carl Senff. Thanks to a scholarship from the Prince of Reuss, Dix was able to study at the School of Applied Arts in Dresden. He became a student of Richard Guhr. His early paintings show strong influences from both Impressionism and Expressionism. From 1912 he focused on the Renaissance era. During this time, Dix was looking for his own forms of expression; he dedicated himself to Futurism, Dadaism and Cubism. In 1913, Otto Dix went on a study trip to Austria and Italy. Between 1914 and 1918 he took part in the First World War as a volunteer. He came to the front in France, Flanders and Russia as a machine gunner and in the field artillery. His experiences and impressions of the war have an impact on his pictures.
His work "Schützengraben" is considered the most massive indictment of war-mongering. But he also presented his criticism of society in other pictures - such as in the titles "The Match Dealer", "Prager Straße", "Venus of the Capitalist Age" and "Big City". The images represent the dark side of society and achieve their impact through the openness of his realism. His themes included hunger, crime and prostitution, which showed the ugliness of life. In 1919 he returned to Dresden. From 1919 to 1922 he studied at the Dresden Art Academy and was a master student of Max Feldbauer and Otto Gußmann. There he founded the "Group 1919" of the Dresden Secession together with Conrad Felixmüller. The following year, Otto Dix created critical social collages using the Dadaist style. In 1922 he moved to Düsseldorf and the following year, 1923, he married Martha Koch. Between 1922 and 1925 he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy as a student of Heinrich Nauen and Wilhelm Herberholz. During this time he became a member of Johanna Ey's circle and the group "The Young Rhineland".
This was followed by a move to Berlin, where he lived from 1925 to 1927. His critical and analytical works reached their peak. Otto Dix went to Dresden in 1927 and held a chair at the University of Fine Arts there until 1933. In 1931 he became a full member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. When the National Socialists came to power, he had to give up his office. The painter was banned from exhibiting. He left Dresden and moved to Randegg Castle near Singen. The move to Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance also brought with it a change in style. From 1936 onward, Dix painted old master landscape paintings, which he combined with late Gothic-inspired reality and time-critical symbolism. In 1937 the National Socialists classified his works as "degenerate art". At the Munich exhibition "Degenerate Art" in the same year, the Nazi regime defamed the artist. Otto Dix had already been denigrated by the National Socialists in 1933 at the two exhibitions "Mirror Images of Decay" in Dresden and "November Spirit - Art in the Service of Decomposition" in Stuttgart. A total of 260 of his works were removed from public museums, sold and some of them burned.
In 1939 he was linked to an assassination attempt on Hitler, so the painter was arrested. In the year the war ended, Dix was drafted into the Volkssturm. He was then taken prisoner in Alsace. In 1946 he was released from French captivity in Colmar and returned to Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance. In 1959 he was honored with the Cross of Merit. Further awards followed in both West and East Germany. Otto Dix made annual visits to Dresden since 1949. There he printed lithographs in the workshop of the University of Fine Arts. Dix was a busy artist and functionary: in 1954 he was elected President of the Upper Swabia Secession, Lake Constance. In 1955 he was accepted as a full member of the West Berlin Academy of Arts. In 1956 he was a corresponding member of the German Academy of Arts in East Berlin. And from 1963 to 1967 he took over the chairmanship of the Baden-Württemberg Artists' Association. In November 1967, after a trip to Greece, Otto Dix suffered a stroke and paralysis of his left hand. In 1968 his last lithographs were printed in the Erker-Presse St. Gallen.
His work "Schützengraben" is considered the most massive indictment of war-mongering. But he also presented his criticism of society in other pictures - such as in the titles "The Match Dealer", "Prager Straße", "Venus of the Capitalist Age" and "Big City". The images represent the dark side of society and achieve their impact through the openness of his realism. His themes included hunger, crime and prostitution, which showed the ugliness of life. In 1919 he returned to Dresden. From 1919 to 1922 he studied at the Dresden Art Academy and was a master student of Max Feldbauer and Otto Gußmann. There he founded the "Group 1919" of the Dresden Secession together with Conrad Felixmüller. The following year, Otto Dix created critical social collages using the Dadaist style. In 1922 he moved to Düsseldorf and the following year, 1923, he married Martha Koch. Between 1922 and 1925 he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy as a student of Heinrich Nauen and Wilhelm Herberholz. During this time he became a member of Johanna Ey's circle and the group "The Young Rhineland".
This was followed by a move to Berlin, where he lived from 1925 to 1927. His critical and analytical works reached their peak. Otto Dix went to Dresden in 1927 and held a chair at the University of Fine Arts there until 1933. In 1931 he became a full member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. When the National Socialists came to power, he had to give up his office. The painter was banned from exhibiting. He left Dresden and moved to Randegg Castle near Singen. The move to Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance also brought with it a change in style. From 1936 onward, Dix painted old master landscape paintings, which he combined with late Gothic-inspired reality and time-critical symbolism. In 1937 the National Socialists classified his works as "degenerate art". At the Munich exhibition "Degenerate Art" in the same year, the Nazi regime defamed the artist. Otto Dix had already been denigrated by the National Socialists in 1933 at the two exhibitions "Mirror Images of Decay" in Dresden and "November Spirit - Art in the Service of Decomposition" in Stuttgart. A total of 260 of his works were removed from public museums, sold and some of them burned.
In 1939 he was linked to an assassination attempt on Hitler, so the painter was arrested. In the year the war ended, Dix was drafted into the Volkssturm. He was then taken prisoner in Alsace. In 1946 he was released from French captivity in Colmar and returned to Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance. In 1959 he was honored with the Cross of Merit. Further awards followed in both West and East Germany. Otto Dix made annual visits to Dresden since 1949. There he printed lithographs in the workshop of the University of Fine Arts. Dix was a busy artist and functionary: in 1954 he was elected President of the Upper Swabia Secession, Lake Constance. In 1955 he was accepted as a full member of the West Berlin Academy of Arts. In 1956 he was a corresponding member of the German Academy of Arts in East Berlin. And from 1963 to 1967 he took over the chairmanship of the Baden-Württemberg Artists' Association. In November 1967, after a trip to Greece, Otto Dix suffered a stroke and paralysis of his left hand. In 1968 his last lithographs were printed in the Erker-Presse St. Gallen.
