Otto Dix

1891 — 1969

Grotesque portraits - this is what the German artist Otto Dix was particularly known for. Together with George Grosz and Max Beckmann, Dix belonged to the New Objectivity, one of the most important art movements of the Weimar Republic. His work is marked by the horrors of the First World War, into which he had gone as a volunteer. The painting "Der Schützengraben" (1923) depicts this horror and is considered one of the most important anti-war paintings of its time. After the end of the war he returned to Dresden, began studying at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste and took part in the First International Dada Exhibition in Berlin in 1920. Five years later Otto Dix moved to Berlin. Here he found his characteristic portrait style, applying paint in several layers.

After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, Dix lost his chair at the Dresden Art Academy, which he had held since 1927. The Nazis defamed his works as "degenerate art". Nevertheless, he remained in Germany during the Second World War and painted landscapes.