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Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was born to Franz and Pauline Dix on December 2, 1891.
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He first displayed his artistic talent with drawing during elementary school. At the age of ten, he modeled for painter Fritz Amann. After experiencing the studio he decided to become a painter himself.
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The Academy did not offer academic painting, A more craft-oriented education was offered. As a result, Dix essentially was a self-taught painter. He tried sculpting taught by Richard Guhr. A bust he created of Friedrich Nietzsche was bought for the Dresden State Museum, but was later destroyed by the Nazis.
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After eagerly volunteering for the war after it began, Dix shortly later was drafted into a field artillery regiment; but by 1915 he was a machine gunner at the frontlines in France, his experience of several horrific battles began to sour his enthusiasm. He sketched many tragic scenes he witnessed.
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After being affected by the war he created surreal portraits and woodcuts, even delving into collage and mixed media. Over the next few years, he created some of his most disturbing canvases of sexual violence, murder, and cruelty.
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Dix married Martha Koch and over the next decade he had three children, all of whom he captured on canvas throughout their childhoods.
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Some were calld Versists, others Magic Realists. Dix was a Vesist - more so aggressive and cynical. He turned his portrait skills on Weimer society, with works like Metropolis (1927-28)
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Dix was made a member of the Prussian Acadmey of Arts. The same year he showed wok in exhibitons all over Germany, and at the Museam of Modern Art in New York.
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The Nazis began to target Dix shortly after showing his work around Germany, regarding his ar aas immoral. He was forbidden to exhibit in Germany and travelled to Switzerland to participate in exhibitons. He was then forced to join the Nazi government's Reich Chamber of Fine Arts. He was still able to express himself, producing works such as Seven Deadly Sins (1933) parodies Adolf Hitler as the embodiment of Envy.
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Dix was arresterd on charges of plotting to kill Hitler, the cahrges were dropped.
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At the end of the war he was captured by the French and held prisoner until 1946. After he returned home he quickly resumed his work, documenting his war experienes and its effects in his work.
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Dix's later work predominantly focuses on post-war suffering, religious allegories, and Biblical scenes. Throughout the 1950s and '60s, he travelled and exhibited his work frequently. He was appointed to membership of many art academies in Florence, Berlin, and Dresden.
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In 1967 he suffered a stroke, which paralysed his left hand. He died in 1969.
