Otto Dix was was a German painter and printmaker born in 1891. He was already exposed to art in his early life and entered the Academy of Applied Arts in 1910.
When World War I began in 1914 Otto Dix enthusiastically volunteered for the German Army. He was assigned to a field artillery regiment and later fought on the Western Front, including the Battle of the Somme. His regiment was moved to the Eastern Front in November 1917 and to Flanders in February 1918, where he fought in the German Spring Offensive. He was discharged from service in December 1918 after he was wounded in the neck.
After the war he had to fight with a recurring nightmare and handled his sights in various paintings. One of his works about World War I is Der Krieg
He was one of the founders of the Dresden Secession group in 1919 and his works were shown during the German Expressionists exhibition in Darmstadt and the first Dada Fair in Berlin. He was known for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of the society during the Weimar Republic and became one of the most important artists of the New Objectivity, Neue Sachlichkeit. After the Nazis took over the power in Germany they regarded Dix as a degenerate artist and some of his paintings were burned as Entartete Kunst. He had to join the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts and was forced to paint only inoffensive landscapes, but occasionally he still painted allegorical paintings that criticized Nazi ideals. After World War II Dix gained recognition in East and West Germany. He died in 1969.
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