TVM Basement: German Expressionism: Pre WWI Otto Dix

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Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix

born: Untermhausen near Gera, Thuringia [now Germany]; 2 December 1891
died: Singen, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany; 25 July 1969

1891		Born as the eldest son of potter Ernst Franz Dix(1862-1942) and Pauline Louise, née Anabb(1864-1955).
1899-1904	8-13	Dix attends school in Untermhaus. His art teacher is Ernst Schunke.
1905	14	He starts an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator.
1908	17	Dix produces his first drawings, oil paintings, pastels, and chalk drawings.
1909	18	His apprenticeship ends. Enrolls in Dresden Commercial Art College. Does his first landscape paintings.
1912	21	Sees the Van Gogh exhibition in Dresden. Starts doing self portraits.
1913	22	Study trips to Austria and Italy. Reads Friedrich Nietzsche.

Foundry 1919 Otto Dix Foundation Vadux, Germany	Waxing and Waining 1911 Stadtsmuseum Bautzen, Germany	Self with Carnation 1912 Institute of the Arts Detroit, MI, US
Streetlights 1913 Otto Dix Foundation Vadux, Germany	Sunrise 1913	Night in the City 1913

1914	23	Start of WWI. Dix volunteers for military service in the field artillery.
1915	24	He is trained as a machine gunner. In autumn he volunteers to be a machine-gunner and platoon leader on the front line in Flanders. From there he goes to Poland, Russia and then back to France.
1916	25	First exhibition of war drawings in Galerie Arnold, Dresden.
1917	26

The Cannon 1914 Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany	Self as a Soldier 1914 Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany	Dying Warrior 1915 Museum Allerheiligen Schaffhausen, Germany
Self as Mars 1915 Haus der Heimat Freital, Germany	Self as Target 1915 Otto Dix Foundation Vadux, Germany	Shell Craters about 1917 Museum der Bidenden Künste Leipzig, Germany
Trenches about 1918	Warrior with a Pipe 1918	Birth 1918

1918

Leaves the army and returns to Gera at the end of year.

World War I ends.

1919

In January and he takes up residence in Dresden. Rents a studio. Begins his Dada phase. Conrad Felixmüller and he a good friends at this point.

Beginning of the Dresden Secession Group of which both Dix and Felixmüller were founding members.

Pregnant Woman 1919	Moon Woman 1919 Staatliche Museen Berlin, Germany
Poet Alfred Günther 1919 Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Germany	My Friend Elis (with Self) 1919

There are many more Dix pictures in the Dix Between World Wars Gallery as well as a continuation of the biographical outline.

2003-10-29