Otto Dix’s Art 1891–1969

n December 1891 Otto Dix was born into the Generation of 1914. He was one of millions of late 19th Century babies who ushered in the 20th on the battlefields of the First World War. Dix was the eldest son of Franz and Louise. His father toiled in a iron foundry and his mother was a seamstress. Dix was exposed to art at an early age. He spent time in the studio of his older cousin, the landscape painter Fritz Amann. Children play – and Dix was no different – but gradually his art improved. Encouraged by elders, Dix took an apprenticeship with the landscape painter Carl Senff. In the early part of the 20th Century, he began to paint landscapes of his own. By 1910 his apprenticeship was complete and Dix left home for Dresden. He had been accepted into the Saxon School of Arts and Crafts. Here he encountered influences that would greatly shape his work. Like many Expressionists, Dix was moved by the Naturalist and Symbolist tendencies of the printmaker Max Klinger. He was first exposed the artist in Dres