Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (1891 – 1969) 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.
Dix has been perhaps more influential than any other German painter in shaping the popular image of the Weimar Republic of the 1920s.
A veteran haunted by his experiences of WWI, his first great subjects were crippled soldiers, but during the height of his career he also painted nudes, prostitutes, and often savagely satirical portraits of celebrities from Germany’s intellectual circles.
His work became even darker and more allegorical in the early 1930s, where he became a target of the Nazis.
No fewer than 200 of his works were seized by the Nazis, and eight of his paintings were in the “Degenerate Art” show in Munich in 1937.
His views were at odds with the regime but he chose to remain in Germany after 1933, so in order to avoid confrontation, he conformed outwardly with the regime.
When the Third Reich fell at the end of the Second World War, Dix was freed from the Nazi’s artistic oppression yet his style never regained its Interwar edge.
After the war most of his paintings became religious allegories or depictions of post-war suffering.
More of Otto Dix‘s inspirational paintings can be found at https://www.ottodix.org/ and https://www.theartstory.org/artist/dix-otto/.
Humoring the Goddess 