The Online Otto Dix Project

A German Artist and Print Maker
 
Portrait of Max John
Portrait of Max John
By Otto Dix
Freiburg Museum of Modern Art

Portrait of Max John

Year: 1920

Description: Fritz Glaser was a wealthy Jewish lawyer and a modern art collector. That was two strikes against him when the Nazis came to power. He survived the Holocaust but his art collection was scattered. After the war he tried to track it down. This piece was hidden in plain sight at the Freiburg Museum of Modern Art. The museum bought it at auction from a private collector in 1959. Glaser may have sold it under duress as financial pressures mounted as a result of his racial persecution but the Freiburg Museum appears unwilling to further investigate and confirm its provenance.

Provenance: Freiburg Museum of Modern Art



The War Cripples
The War Cripples
By Otto Dix
Location unknown
  • This is a photographic reproduction of a halftone image; the actual painting is presumed destroyed
  • First International Dada Fair (1920)

The War Cripples

Year: 1920

Description: By 1920, Dix was associated with the Berlin Dadaists. In the summer of that year, he exhibited this painting at the First International Dada Fair. Unlike many works on display, this one avoided official controversy despite its accusatory tone. Other works were not as fortunate. The military filed charges of insult against several artists at the exhibition.

So while it may have escaped the military's ire during the Dada Fair, it become a lightening rod the following winter when Paul F. Schmidt purchased it for the Dresden Museum. Later when Hitler came to power, it was seized and displayed in the Nazi's Degenerate Art exhibition. It was captioned, "Slander against the German Heroes of the World War."

In this painting, Dix leaves no one unscathed. He damns the military for butchering his generation, the public for its fascination with these reconstituted men and the cripples themselves for their undiminished national pride. 

The reproduction seen here was taken from a period photograph. The War Cripples disappeared after the Degenerate Art exhibition. It's location is currently unknown and it is presumed destroyed.

Provenance: Location unknown

  • This is a photographic reproduction of a halftone image; the actual painting is presumed destroyed
  • First International Dada Fair (1920)



The Match Seller
The Match Seller
By Otto Dix

The Match Seller

Year: 1921

Description: This mutilated veteran is a pitiful character. The war has taken limbs and vision. His deformities are highly visible yet the only attention he draws is from a Daschund who pees on his stumps.

Provenance:



Parents of the Artist <br /><i>Die Eltern des Künstlers I</i>
Parents of the Artist
By Otto Dix
Öffentliche Kunstsammlung

Parents of the Artist
Die Eltern des Künstlers I

Year: 1921

Description:

Otto Dix was the son of working class parents. His father Franz was a foundry worker and his mother Louise was a hausfrau.

Provenance: Öffentliche Kunstsammlung



Doctor Hans Koch
Doctor Hans Koch
By 0tto Dix
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Doctor Hans Koch

Year: 1921

Description: Doctor Koch was a kidney and bladder specialist in Dusseldorf. He is depicted in a menacing chamber of medical equipment. Dix befriended the Doctor then took Frau Doctor to his bed. When Dix returned to Dresden, Martha Koch followed him. She left her husband and two children behind. The Doctor was unperturbed because he had already begun an affair with Maria Lindner, his wife's older sister. Dix and Koch became brothers-in-law and remained friends until the Doctor's death in 1952.

Provenance: Museum Ludwig, Cologne



Frau Doctor Hans Koch
Frau Doctor Hans Koch
By Otto Dix
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Frau Doctor Hans Koch

Year: 1921

Description: Unlike its European counterparts, the German middle class did not seek distinction granted by royalty. Before the War, for example, Oscar Huldschinsky refused the Kronenorden by saying, "If no one has thought to honor my contribution to German Industry, I'm not going to accept a medal just because I went boating with the Kaiser." The title most sought by businessmen was Kommerzialrat. For lawyers it was Justizrat. Such titles were so coveted that wives were often addressed with their husband's title, hence Frau Doctor Hans Koch. "Doctor" was removed when she became Frau Dix.

Provenance: Museum Ludwig, Cologne



The Salon I
The Salon I
By Otto Dix
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart

The Salon I

Year: 1921

Description: Four prostitutes sit around a table and wait for business. Each is past her prime; they all wear cheap finery which fails to hide their years. What opportunities are there for aging prostitutes? (Salon II was lost or destroyed).

Provenance: Kunstmuseum Stuttgart



Portrait of Paul F. Schmidt <br /><i>Bildnis Paul F. Schmidt</i>
Portrait of Paul F. Schmidt
By Otto Dix
Public Museum
  • Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany

Portrait of Paul F. Schmidt
Bildnis Paul F. Schmidt

Year: 1921

Description: Paul F. Schmidt was a German museum director and art critic. He was a forward-looking man who admired modern artists. In his first full-time assignment as the head of municipal art collections in Magdeburg, he attempted to fill the print room with young German and French artists. The backlash from an older generation was swift and heavy. Schmidt quit the museum when his vision was dashed.

From Magdeburg he moved Munich before settling in Dresden as the director of modern art in the City Museum. In 1921, he published Dix's Radierwerke I and II. Such progressive purchases put him in the cross hairs of local right-wing politicians. When the NSDAP seized power in 1933, he was forced into retirement. He was thus one of the first victims of Nazi cultural policy.

Schmidt moved to southern Germany before the Second World War where he faded to obscurity. Yet he was a large figure in early 20th Century German art. This portrait, which is both charming and grotesque, is a delightful reminder of his legacy. 

The F. in Paul F. Schmidt stands for "Ferdinand." 

Provenance: Public Museum

  • Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany



Woman With A Red Hat <br /><i>Frau Mit Roten Hat</i>
Woman With A Red Hat
By Otto Dix
Private Collection
  • Hamburg
  • Löffler 1921/11

Woman With A Red Hat
Frau Mit Roten Hat

Year: 1921

Description: This painting is widely distributed in digital form under the name Così fan tutte, Women Are Like That. While that is certainly apt, we list it under the name in Fritz Löffler's Euvre der Gemälde.

Her cheeks are rosy red and her lips are darkly stained. Yet her skin complexion suggests she's not as healthy as those colors suggest. Heavy makeup creates the illusion of vibrant health. Così fan tutte 
 

Provenance: Private Collection

  • Hamburg
  • Löffler 1921/11



Farewell To Hamburg <br /><i>Abschied von Hamburg</i>
Farewell To Hamburg
By Otto Dix
Private Museum
  • Gunzenhauser Museum, Chemitz (2007)
  • Galerie Gunzenhauser, Munich
  • Löffler 1921/1

Farewell To Hamburg
Abschied von Hamburg

Year: 1921

Description: In the summer of 1921, Otto Dix visited the port city of Hamburg on the North Sea. As he walked along the waterfront, he saw sailors on leave as they searched for pleasure on land. Along the red light district, Dix found brothels and prostitutes in abundance. It was a scene that may have helped reinforce earlier prejudices.

During the war, Dix often held sailors in contempt. The High Seas Fleet was in harbor for much of the conflict. From the artist's perspective, its sailors were chasing prostitutes and drinking gratuitous amounts of alcohol while the Wehrmacht bore the brunt the war's burden.

Dix's interpretation of a sailor's life as a string of exotic encounters has been described by Ashley Bassie in Expressionism as "intentionally kitch." A sailor's longings last as long as the time between ports of call.  

Provenance: Private Museum

  • Gunzenhauser Museum, Chemitz (2007)
  • Galerie Gunzenhauser, Munich
  • Löffler 1921/1







 

  • Björn Sjöling

    what beautiful work

  • http://radarman1946.tumblr.com/ Melvin

    Imagine the hideous dreck with which we will be tortured when Trump and his cronies begin to impose their “taste” in art upon us! I am surprised that President Draft-Dodger Pussy-Grabber has not begun to apply gold paint to the entire White House.

  • Alice Rohr

    I’m impressed. Thank you for a fine selection of pictures and fine comments.

  • Richard Foran

    Yes very good ,he might just be my new favourite German artist. We often think of artist as soft folk or a bit wimpy ,poets and writers, yet Otto draws this stuff during national feverism ,guts, A lot of brave talent in European artists from ww1 onwards at very dangerous times.

    Doing works like these really convince you that these types of people have no interest in money nor fame and were all about there perceptions of the world around them.

  • Richard Foran

    Given the human rights at the time and the national socialist movement , its a miracle all of the dadaist were not shot

  • Richard von Bitter

    Mistake in the description. The Wehrmacht was the German army in WWII. In WWI it was called the Deutsches Heer

  • Karl Gauss

    Wonderful gallery doing Dix great justice. Thank you for curating it!

    One small point – While I don’t disagree with your historic allusions in his ‘fur hat’ portrait, I believe Dix was also making a declaration of his survival; emerging from two obscene wars with new strength and purpose.