Editing Otto Dix (section)

===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>