Otto Dix Research

 Background:

• Born 2 December 1891, Untermhaus
• He created  surrealistic portrait paintings and he is known for scary vision of war. 
• He experimented with etching, lithography and woodcut. 
• New Objectivity movement.
• The Great War - in August 1914, he volunteered to the army and in 1915 he was a NCO in machine gun unit. (Diary and sketchbook)
• 1926 - Dix became a professor 
• "I had the feeling that there was a dimension of reality that had not been dealt with in art: the dimension of ugliness."

In this research I want to focus on Otto Dix’s scary vision of war. Dix’s war experiences affected him deeply. He said: “For years, constantly had these dreams in which I was forced to crawl through destroyed buildings, through corridors through which I couldn’t pass. The rubble was always there in my dreams.” I chose this theme, because in my project I will be create it few works related to a war time. Otto Dix in his paintings, drawing and prints showed corruption and social apathy. Dix also portrays the destructive effects of war, including rotting corpses and bombed cities and landscapes. It is for my work, because my grandma couldn’t go back to her house because it was destroyed. By looking at Otto’s works I can become more familiar with vision of destructive force of war. It is important to say that this is different times, however looking at his works can help. 

Otto Dix, Shock Troops Advance under Gas (Sturmtruppe geht unter Gas vor) from The War (Der Krieg), 1924 

Otto Dix, Ruine Der Frauenkirche, 1966

Der Krieg, Otto Dix, ca. 1916-1924

References:

Otto Dix. n.d. Biography - Otto Dix. [online] Available at: https://www.ottodix.org/biography/ [Acessed 2 February 2021]. 

The Museum of Modern Art. n.d. Otto Dix | MoMA. [online] Available at: https://www.moma.org/artists/1559 [Accessed 2 February 2021]. 

Artnet.com n.d. Otto Dix | artnet. [online] Available at: http://www.artnet.com/artists/otto-dix/ [Accessed 2 February 2021].