Editing Otto Dix (section)

==Biography==
===Early life and education===
Otto Dix was born in Untermhaus, Germany, now a part of the city of [[Gera]], Thuringia. The eldest son of Franz Dix, an iron foundry worker, and Louise, a seamstress<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.neuegalerie.org/collection/artist-profiles/otto-dix |title=Neue Galerie New York |last=York |first=Neue Galerie New |website=neuegalerie.org |language=en |access-date=25 January 2020}}</ref> who had written poetry in her youth, he was exposed to art from an early age.<ref name="Karcher_21-24">Karcher 1988, pp. 21–24.</ref> The hours he spent in the studio of his cousin, Fritz Amann, who was a painter, were decisive in forming young Otto's ambition to be an artist; he received additional encouragement from his primary school teacher.<ref name="Karcher_21-24" /> Between 1906 and 1910, he served an apprenticeship with painter Carl Senff, and began painting his first [[landscape art|landscape]]s. 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.<ref>''Intransigent Realism: Otto Dix between the World Wars''. Ed. Olaf Peters. (New York: Prestel, 2010) 14.</ref>

The majority of Dix's early works concentrated on landscapes and portraits which were done in a stylized realism that later shifted to expressionism.<ref>Fritz Löffler, ''Otto Dix Life and Work'' (New York: Holmes &amp; Meier Publishers, Inc., 1982) p. 14.</ref>

===World War I service===
[[File:'Stormtroops Advancing Under Gas', etching and aquatint by Otto Dix, 1924.jpg|thumb|left|''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 [[field artillery]] regiment in Dresden.<ref name="Karcher_251"/> In the autumn of 1915 he was assigned as a [[non-commissioned officer]] of a machine-gun unit on the Western front and took part in the [[Battle of the Somme]]. In November 1917, his unit was transferred to the Eastern front until the end of hostilities with Russia, and in February 1918 he was stationed in Flanders. Back on the western front, he fought in the [[German spring offensive]]. He earned the [[Iron Cross]], 2nd class, and reached the rank of ''[[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.<ref>Norbert Wolf, Uta Grosenick (2004), [https://books.google.com/books?id=MbOdSrOFfpEC&pg=PA36 ''Expressionism''], [[Taschen]], p. 34. {{ISBN|3-8228-2126-8}}.</ref>

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 [[PTSD|traumatic experiences]] in many subsequent works, including a portfolio of fifty [[etching]]s called [[The War (Dix engravings)|''Der Krieg'']], published in 1924.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/14/first-world-war-german-art-otto-dix |title=The first world war in German art: Otto Dix's first-hand visions of horror |last=Jones |first=Jonathan |date=14 May 2014 |work=The Guardian |access-date=2 January 2018 |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Subsequently, he referred to the war again in [[The War (Dix triptych)|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 [[Dresden]], where he studied at the [[Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden|Hochschule für Bildende Künste]]. He became a founder of the [[Dresdner Sezession|Dresden Secession]] group in 1919, during a period when his work was passing through an [[Expressionism|expressionist]] phase.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i1fn6BDAu5YC&q=1918+Dix++moved+to+Dresden,+where+he+studied+at+the+Hochschule+f%C3%BCr+Bildende+K%C3%BCnste.&pg=PA210 |title=Neue Sachlichkeit: Malerei, Graphik und Photographie in Deutschland 1919–1933 |last=Michalski |first=Sergiusz |date=2003 |publisher=Taschen |isbn=9783822823729 |language=en}}</ref> In 1920, he met [[George Grosz]] and, influenced by [[Dada]], began incorporating [[collage]] elements into his works, some of which he exhibited in the first Dada Fair in Berlin. His early use of collage, in the context of the [[Weimar Republic]], is evident in [[The Match Seller|''The Match Seller'']] from 1920. Dix also participated in the [[German Expressionism|German Expressionists]] exhibition in [[Darmstadt]] that year.<ref name="Karcher_251">Karcher 1988, p. 251.</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v9m4pnTmtCoC&pg=PA249 |title=Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s |first=Sabine |last=Rewald |publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] |isbn=9781588392008 |page=249 |year=2006 |access-date=20 September 2021 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

In 1924, he joined the [[Berlin Secession]]; by this time he was developing an increasingly realistic style of painting that used thin glazes of oil paint over a [[tempera]] underpainting, in the manner of the old masters.<ref>Karcher 1988, p. 252.</ref> His 1923 painting ''[[The Trench (Dix)|The Trench]]'', which depicted dismembered and decomposed bodies of soldiers after a battle, caused such a furor that 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.
[[File:Otto Dix Sy von Harden.jpg|thumb|left|''Portrait of the Journalist [[Sylvia von Harden]]'', 1926, mixed media on wood, 120 x 88&nbsp;cm, Paris, [[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 [[lust murder|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."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ashton |first=Dore |title=Otto Dix Neue Galerie |journal=The Brooklyn Rail |date=April 2010 |url=http://brooklynrail.org/2010/04/artseen/otto-dix-neue-galerie-march-11august-30-2010}}</ref>

Among his most famous paintings are ''Sailor and Girl'' (1925), used as the cover of [[Philip Roth]]'s 1995 novel ''[[Sabbath's Theater]]'', the [[triptych]] ''[[Metropolis (painting)|Metropolis]]'' (1928), a scornful portrayal of decadence and depravity in Germany's Weimar Republic,<ref>Karcher 1988, pp. 162, 193.</ref> where nonstop revelry was a way to deal with the wartime defeat and financial catastrophe,<ref>{{citation |title=Exhibition of "Cabaret" Era Opens at Met Museum |publisher=ARTINFO |date=14 November 2006 |url=http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/24291/exhibition-of-cabaret-era-opens-at-met-museum/ |access-date=23 April 2008}}</ref> 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.<ref>Sell, S. and Chapman, H. Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns. p. 230. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ. 2015.</ref>

===The Nazis and World War II===
The Nazi-affiliated Deutsche Kunstgesellschaft Dresden [The German Art Society Dresden] had defined Dix as one of Germany's most 'degenerate' artists long before the Nazis' takeover of power in January 1933. For example, when ''Metropolis'' was exhibited in Dresden for the first time in 1928, one of the German Art Society's founding members and most prominent writer Bettina Feistel-Rohmeder pilloried both Dix personally and the depiction of German society that ''Metropolis'' offered, in the Society's art bulletin, the ''Deutsche Kunstkorrespondenz'' [German Art Correspondence].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Ann |title=Otto Dix and the Memorialisation of World War I in German Visual Culture, 1914-1936 |date=2023 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |isbn=9781350354647 |pages=124–146 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nu8LEQAAQBAJ |access-date=5 July 2024}}</ref> In April 1933, Richard Müller, who with Feistel-Rohmeder had founded the ''Deutsche Kunstgesellschaft Dresden'', sacked Dix from his post as a professor of painting at the [[Dresden Academy of Fine Arts|Dresden Academy]], on a directive from Saxony's Reichskommissar Manfred von Killinger. The reason given was that, through his art, he had committed a 'violation of the moral sensibilities' of the nation.<ref>Dr Brad Evans. {{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3DjtCQ_26s |title=What is: Degenerate Art? {{!}} HENI Talks |date=2021-02-15 |last=HENI Talks |access-date=2025-01-07 |via=YouTube}}</ref> Dix later moved to [[Lake Constance]] in the southwest of Germany.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Christie's |title=Otto Dix (1891-1969) Familie Glaser--Karton zum Gemälde |url=https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4983627 |website=christies.com |quote=In 1933, Dix was dismissed from his post as a professor of art at the Dresden Academy of Art and was forced into internal exile at Lake Constance, near the Swiss border, where he was permitted to paint landscapes only.}}</ref> Dix's paintings ''[[The Trench (Dix)|The Trench]]'' and ''War Cripples'' were exhibited in the [[Degenerate Art Exhibition|state-sponsored Munich 1937 exhibition of degenerate art]], ''[[Degenerate art|Entartete Kunst]]''. ''War Cripples'' was later burned.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/neue-sachlichkeit/a/art-in-nazi-germany |title=Khan Academy |website=Khan Academy |language=en |access-date=2 January 2018}}</ref> ''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.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/neue-sachlichkeit/lost-art-otto-dix |title=Tate Gallery |website=Tate Gallery |language=en |access-date=14 June 2018}}</ref>

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.<ref>Conzelmann, 1959, p. 50.</ref> His paintings that were considered "degenerate" were discovered in 2012 among the 1500+ paintings [[Gurlitt Collection|hidden away]] by the son of Hitler's looted-art dealer [[Hildebrand Gurlitt]].<ref>Kimmelman, Michael (2013) [https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/arts/design/in-a-rediscovered-trove-of-art-a-triumph-over-the-nazis-will.html?_r=0 ''In a Rediscovered Trove of Art, a Triumph Over the Nazis' Will'' in The New York Times] (Accessed: 16 January 2017).</ref><ref name=spiegel>{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/photo-gallery-munich-nazi-art-stash-revealed-fotostrecke-103675-4.html |title=Photo Gallery: Munich Nazi Art Stash Revealed |date=17 November 2013 |work=Der Spiegel |access-date=17 November 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title="Trésor nazi": la petite-fille d'Otto Dix accuse Berlin – Nazi Treasure – Otto Dix's Granddaughter accuses Berlin |url=https://lootedart.com/news.php?r=QD1BKT897821 |access-date=16 February 2021 |work=L'Express}}</ref>

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===
Dix eventually returned to Dresden and remained there until 1966. After the war most of his paintings were religious [[allegory|allegories]] or depictions of post-war suffering, including his 1948 ''Ecce homo with self-likeness behind barbed wire''. In this period, Dix gained recognition in both parts of the then-divided Germany. In 1959 he was awarded the [[Grand Merit Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany]] (''Großes Verdienstkreuz'') and in 1950, he was unsuccessfully nominated for the [[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 [[Singen am Hohentwiel]]. He is buried at [[Hemmenhofen]] on Lake Constance.

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