Otto Dix
Otto Dix was a significant German painter born on December 2, 1891, in Untermhaus, Germany. He is best known for his impactful artwork depicting the Weimar Republic, a tumultuous period in Germany between World War I and the rise of the Nazi regime. Dix’s artistic journey began at a young age, influenced by his family and early art instruction, leading him to study at the Dresden Academy of Applied Arts. His experiences as a soldier in World War I profoundly shaped his work, as he documented the horrors of war through pieces like "Skat Players" and his etching portfolio "Der Krieg."
Dix became associated with the New Objectivity movement, known for its realistic portrayal of post-war life, often addressing themes of societal decay and human suffering. Despite facing censorship and persecution from the Nazis, Dix continued to create provocative art, including satirical portraits that critiqued the regime. After World War II, he shifted his focus to landscapes and allegorical themes. Dix’s legacy endures through his unique blend of realism and abstraction, capturing not only likenesses but also deeper insights into character and social issues. He passed away in 1969, leaving behind a lasting impact on modern art.
Otto Dix
Artist
- Born: December 2, 1891
- Place of Birth: Place of birth: Untermhaus, Germany
- Died: July 25, 1969
- Place of Death: Place of death: Singen, West Germany
Education: Academy of Applied Arts, Dresden, Germany
Significance: Otto Dix is among the most famous and influential artists who created paintings depicting the Weimar Republic, or Germany in the interwar years between the end of World War I in 1919 and 1933 when the Nazis came to power.
Background
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was born on December 2, 1891, in Untermhaus, Germany. His father, Franz, was a mold-maker in an iron foundry; his mother, Pauline, was a seamstress with a fondness for music and poetry, which she passed on to her son.
After Dix sat as a model for another artist, Fritz Amann (1878 – 1969), he decided that he wanted to be a painter. Dix was ten years old at the time. A teacher provided his first art instruction and helped him obtain a scholarship to continue his studies. As part of his funding, Dix apprenticed as a decorator for four years. He then began his formal studies at the Dresden Academy of Applied Arts. However, the school focused more on practical applications of art, so Dix had to teach himself easel painting techniques by studying the work of other famous European painters. Even his early work was well-received, and he was soon earning a stipend from the school in addition to making money from the sale of small paintings and hand-colored photographs. He also studied sculpture and had some success with this art form as well.
When World War I broke out in 1914, Dix volunteered for service. He was a non-commissioned officer stationed on the front lines in France, where he was wounded several times and saw many of his fellow soldiers killed, wounded, and maimed. Dix kept a journal during this time and filled a sketchbook with drawings that would later influence a large portion of his art.
In August 1918 while serving in Flanders, Dix sustained a life-threatening wound to his neck. He was discharged the next month. He returned to Dresden and resumed studying at the Academy of Applied Art from 1919 to 1922. Then he moved to Dusseldorf and continued his education with teachers who introduced him to a new modernist style.
Life’s Work
The horrors Dix witnessed during World War I had a profound effect on his work, especially early in his career. One of his paintings, Skat Players (Card-Playing War Cripples) (1920), showed the damage war inflected on young soldiers. In 1924, Dix published his first major work, a portfolio of fifty etchings entitled Der Krieg (War). This was a limited edition of seventy folios also depicting the horrors of war, without any of the glorious or triumphant aspects sometimes attributed to the fight for a homeland.
Dix continued this gritty, realistic approach to art in works that often showed images of wounded soldiers. He also began creating paintings with a carnal theme, featuring prostitutes and scenes of sexual assault. Around this time, Dix was also part of a 1925 exhibit at the Kunsthalle Mannheim Museum called Neue Sachlichkeit, or New Objectivity. This post-Expressionistic art style aimed for a practical, objective viewpoint of life, especially in the interwar years between the First and Second World Wars. Dix was among the artists who would become most associated with this art form. His Metropolis (1927 – 1928) portrayed the seedier side of life in the aftermath of the First World War. This war was also the subject of his triptych, or three-paneled work of art, The War (1929 – 1932).
As Dix’s work grew in popularity, he was featured in more exhibits in Europe and America and was even made a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin. He became especially known for his portraits, which added an abstract element to an art form that is generally realistic. His subjects included family members, friends, and those around him. He also painted a number of self-portraits, including some after the outbreak of the Second World War, such as Self Portrait with Palette before Red Curtain (1942).
After the Nazis came into power in 1933, Dix’s art caused him to get into trouble with the authorities. The satirical style of his portraits and other works was forbidden by the Nazis, and he was unable to exhibit in Germany. Undeterred, Dix held exhibits in other countries and even depicted Adolf Hitler as envy in human form in Seven Deadly Sins (1933). He was accused of plotting to kill Hitler and was jailed, but he was later released. Dix was forced to join the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts in 1934, and he once again served in the German military during World War II. Dix was captured by the French and held in a prisoner of war camp, where he painted another triptych to be displayed in the prison camp’s chapel. However, the Nazis moved many of his paintings to the Degenerate Art Museum in Munich, and they were later destroyed.
After his release from the prison camp, Dix began painting landscapes and pictures with allegorical and biblical themes—similar to those he painted before he experienced war. He continued to work and travel to exhibits around the world, until he had a stroke in 1967 that crippled his left hand. Dix died in Singen, in what was then West Germany, in 1969 after having a second stroke.
Impact
Dix is most remembered for the abstract elements he added to the many portraits he painted during his life. These portraits were done in a caricature-like style that depicted not only the likeness of the person but also something of his or her character or lifestyle. He is also known for his realistic and unflinching portrayal of the breakdown of society caused by war and sexual immorality.
Personal
Dix married Martha Koch in 1923. They had three children: Nelly (1923 – 1955), Ursus (1927 – 2002) and Jan (1928 – ), all of whom became subjects of his paintings.
Bibliography
Henshaw, Mark. "The Art of War: Otto Dix’s Der Krieg [War] cycle 1924." National Gallery of Australia, n.d. Web. 13 June 2016.
Murray, Ann. Otto Dix and the Memorialization of World War I in German Visual Culture, 1914-1936. Bloomsbury, 2023.
"Otto Dix: March 11 – August 30, 2010." Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie of German and Austrian Art, n.d. Web. 13 June 2016. RLINK "http://www.neuegalerie.org/exhibitions/otto-dix"
"Otto Dix: German, 1891 – 1969." Museum of Modern Art, New York, n.d. Web. 13 June 2016.
"Otto Dix." Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie of German and Austrian Art, n.d. Web. 13 June 2016.
Polyzoidou, Stella. "Traumatized by World War I: 10 Facts & Works by Otto Dix." The Collector, 6 Aug. 2021, www.thecollector.com/otto-dix-facts-and-works-german-war-artist/. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.
Remer, Ashley. "Otto Dix: German Painter and Printmaker." The Art Story, Modern Art Insight, n.d. Web. 13 June 2016.