Otto Dix

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For the Russian band, see Otto Dix (band).

Otto Dix
New objectivity, Dada
Spouse
Martha Koch
​
(m. 1923)​
Children3
AwardsIron Cross, 2nd class
1918

Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (German: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈʔɔtoː ˈdɪks]; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969)[1] was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Along with George Grosz and Max Beckmann, he is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.[2]

Biography

Early life and education

Otto Dix was born in Untermhaus, Germany, now a part of the city of

landscapes. In 1910, he entered the Kunstgewerbeschule in Dresden, now the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where Richard Guhr was among his teachers. At that time the school was not a school for the fine arts but rather an academy that concentrated on applied arts and crafts.[5]

The majority of Dix's early works concentrated on landscapes and portraits which were done in a stylized realism that later shifted to expressionism.[6]

World War I service

Stormtroopers Advancing Under Gas, etching and aquatint by Otto Dix, 1924

When the First World War erupted, Dix volunteered for the German Army. He was assigned to a

Vizefeldwebel
. In August of that year he was wounded in the neck, and shortly after he took pilot training lessons.

He took part in an anti-aircraft course in Tongern, was promoted to Vizefeldwebel and after passing the medical tests transferred to Aviation Replacement Unit Schneidemühl in Posen. He was discharged from service on 22 December 1918 and was home for Christmas.[8]

Dix was profoundly affected by the sights of the war, and later described a recurring nightmare in which he crawled through destroyed houses. He represented his

traumatic experiences in many subsequent works, including a portfolio of fifty etchings called Der Krieg, published in 1924.[9] Subsequently, he referred to the war again in The War Triptych
, painted from 1929 to 1932.

Post-war artwork

At the end of 1918 Dix returned to Gera, but the next year he moved to

German Expressionists exhibition in Darmstadt that year.[7]

He met metalsmith

Martha Koch in 1921, and they married in 1923. They had three children together. She was a frequent subject of his portraits.[11]

In 1924, he joined the

Wallraf-Richartz Museum hid the painting behind a curtain. In 1925 the then-mayor of Cologne, Konrad Adenauer
, canceled the purchase of the painting and forced the director of the museum to resign.

Centre Georges Pompidou

Dix was a contributor to the

Neue Sachlichkeit exhibition in Mannheim in 1925, which featured works by George Grosz, Max Beckmann, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Karl Hubbuch, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Scholz and many others. Dix's work, like that of Grosz—his friend and fellow veteran—was extremely critical of contemporary German society and often dwelled on the act of Lustmord
, or sexualized murder. He drew attention to the bleaker side of life, unsparingly depicting prostitution, violence, old age, and death.

In one of his few statements, published in 1927, Dix declared, "The object is primary and the form is shaped by the object."[13]

Among his most famous paintings are Sailor and Girl (1925), used as the cover of

Metropolis (1928), a scornful portrayal of decadence and depravity in Germany's Weimar Republic,[14] where nonstop revelry was a way to deal with the wartime defeat and financial catastrophe,[15] and the startling Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden (1926). His depictions of legless and disfigured veterans—a common sight on Berlin's streets in the 1920s—unveil the ugly side of war and illustrate their forgotten status within contemporary German society, a concept also developed in Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front
.

Although frequently recognized as a painter, Dix drew self-portraits and portraits of others using the medium of silverpoint on prepared paper. "Old Woman," drawn in 1932, was exhibited with old-master drawings.[16]

World War II and the Nazis

When the

state-sponsored Munich 1937 exhibition of degenerate art, Entartete Kunst. War Cripples was later burned.[17] The Trench was long thought to have been destroyed too, but there are indications the work survived until at least 1940. Its later whereabouts are unknown; it may have been looted during the confusion at the end of the war. It has been called 'perhaps the most famous picture in post-war Europe ... a masterpiece of unspeakable horror.[18]

Dix, like all other practising artists, was forced to join the Nazi government's Reich Chamber of Fine Arts (Reichskammer der bildenden Kuenste), a subdivision of Goebbels' Cultural Ministry (

Reichskulturkammer). Membership was mandatory for all artists in the Reich. Dix had to promise to paint only inoffensive landscapes. He still painted an occasional allegorical painting that criticized Nazi ideals.[19] His paintings that were considered "degenerate" were discovered in 2012 among the 1500+ paintings hidden away by the son of Hitler's looted-art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt.[20][21][22]

In 1939 he was arrested on the trumped-up charge of being involved in a plot against Hitler (see Georg Elser), but was later released.

During World War II, Dix was conscripted into the Volkssturm. He was captured by French troops at the end of the war and released in February 1946.

Later life and death

20 Euro coin minted in 2016 to commemorate Dix's 125th birthday

Dix eventually returned to Dresden and remained there until 1966. After the war most of his paintings were religious

National Prize of the GDR. He received the Lichtwark Prize in Hamburg and the Martin Andersen Nexo Art Prize in Dresden to mark his 75th birthday in 1967. Dix was made an honorary citizen of Gera. Also in 1967 he received the Hans Thoma Prize and in 1968 the Rembrandt Prize of the Goethe Foundation
in Salzburg.

Dix died on 25 July 1969 after a second stroke in

Hemmenhofen
on Lake Constance.

Dix had three children: a daughter Nelly; and two sons, Ursus and Jan.

Otto Dix House Museums

Otto Dix House in Gera – Dix's birthplace

The Otto-Dix-Haus was opened in 1991, at the 100th anniversary of Dix's birth, in the 18th-century house where he was born and grew up, at Mohrenplatz 4 in the city of Gera, as a museum and art gallery. It is managed by the city administration.

As well as providing access to the rooms Dix lived in, it houses a permanent collection of 400 of his works on paper and paintings. Visitors can see examples of his childhood sketch books, watercolours and drawings from the 1920s and 1930s, and lithographs. The collection also includes 48 postcards he sent from the front during World War I.[23] The gallery also regularly hosts temporary exhibitions.

The building was affected by a flood in June 2013. In order to repair the underlying damage, the museum was closed in January 2016, and re-opened in December 2016 following restoration.[24]

The

Hemmenhofen, south Germany.[25]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Otto Dix | German artist". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  2. ^ Tate. "Five things to know: Otto Dix – List". Tate. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  3. ^ York, Neue Galerie New. "Neue Galerie New York". neuegalerie.org. Retrieved 25 January 2020.
  4. ^ a b Karcher 1988, pp. 21–24.
  5. ^ Intransigent Realism: Otto Dix between the World Wars. Ed. Olaf Peters. (New York: Prestel, 2010) 14.
  6. ^ Fritz Löffler, Otto Dix Life and Work (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers, Inc., 1982) p. 14.
  7. ^ a b Karcher 1988, p. 251.
  8. ISBN 3-8228-2126-8
    .
  9. ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  10. ISBN 9783822823729
    .
  11. ISBN 9781588392008
    . Retrieved 20 September 2021 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ Karcher 1988, p. 252.
  13. ^ Ashton, Dore (April 2010). "Otto Dix Neue Galerie". The Brooklyn Rail.
  14. ^ Karcher 1988, pp. 162, 193.
  15. ^ Exhibition of "Cabaret" Era Opens at Met Museum, ARTINFO, 14 November 2006, retrieved 23 April 2008
  16. ^ Sell, S. and Chapman, H. Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns. p. 230. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ. 2015.
  17. ^ "Khan Academy". Khan Academy. Retrieved 2 January 2018.
  18. ^ "Tate Gallery". Tate Gallery. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  19. ^ Conzelmann, 1959, p. 50.
  20. ^ Kimmelman, Michael (2013) In a Rediscovered Trove of Art, a Triumph Over the Nazis' Will in The New York Times (Accessed: 16 January 2017).
  21. ^ "Photo Gallery: Munich Nazi Art Stash Revealed". Der Spiegel. 17 November 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2013.
  22. ^ ""Trésor nazi": la petite-fille d'Otto Dix accuse Berlin – Nazi Treasure – Otto Dix's Granddaughter accuses Berlin". L'Express. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  23. ^ Kunstsammlung Gera / Otto-Dix-Haus (in German) (Accessed: 16 January 2017).
  24. ^ Hilbert, Marcel (2016) Hochwasserschäden werden repariert: Otto-Dix-Haus in Gera seit 4. Januar geschlossen (Accessed: 16 January 2017).
  25. ^ "Museum Haus Dix at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart Official Website (German)".

References

External links

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