Otto Dix (Untermhaus, near Gera, December 2, 1891 - Singen, July 25, 1969) is a German painter and engraver associated with the movements of Expressionism and is one of the founders of the New Objectivity.
Otto Dix comes from a working class background (his father, Franz Dix, worked in an iron mine), but received an artistic education from his mother, Pauline Louise Dix, who was interested in music and painting. After taking the lessons of the drawing teacher Ernst Schunke during his youth, Otto Dix took classes at Gera from 1905 to 1909 with Carl Senff, who doubted the future of his pupil as a painter. A scholarship provided by the Prince of Reuss allowed him to enter the School of Applied Arts in Dresden, where he studied between 1909 and 1914. Johann Nikolaus Türk and Richard Guhr are among his professors. Ten will try Cubism, Futurism and later Dadaism.
When the war broke out, he was called to the flag during the general mobilization and was sent to a training camp. His training during "surprisingly long" - which allows him to pursue his artistic activities -, Otto Dix was sent to the front in the autumn of 1915 only because he volunteer>. The following year, he received training as a machine gunner and participated in many campaigns in Champagne, the Somme or Russia which he will come out alive, despite several injuries. He then has in mind images of horror he tries to forget painting, as evidenced by The Skat Players in 1920.
His most accomplished work testifying to the traumatic experiences of the war is the portfolio of fifty etchings, Der Krieg >>>, published in 1924. He will talk about this experience:
