Otto Dix (1891-1969), German painter and printmaker, whose best-known works depict the horrors of war. The most important influence on Dix’s work was his service in World War I; from 1915 to 1918 he was a machine gunner in the German Army. Dix’s wartime experiences, along with his observations of the economic and political chaos that followed the war, crystallized in a realist, socially critical style that followed in the footsteps of Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch and Spanish artist Francisco de Goya.

During the years following World War I, Dix became associated with George Grosz, Max Beckmann, and other German artists who shared his critical view of society. In 1919 he cofounded an organization of radical artists called the Dresden Secession. The next year he participated in an exhibition of dada works in Berlin, showing antiwar works that incorporated elements of collage. After 1925 Dix became a leader in a movement called the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), which was dedicated to realistic painting that aimed to expose the corrupt nature of modern life.

In the 1920s and 1930s Dix’s work focused on the twin themes of war and the social and economic upheaval that followed the war. His most recurrent subject was the brutality of trench warfare, climaxing in the three-panel painting War (1928-1932, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, Germany). In 1924 he created a series of 50 etchings, also titled War, an homage to Goya’s series Disasters of War (1810). Dix also painted scenes of street life, such as the three-panel painting Metropolis (1927-1928, Galerie der Stadt, Stuttgart), which contrasts the decadent atmosphere of a jazz club with scenes of disabled war veterans and prostitutes. In his many portraits he captured the character of prominent members of society as well as people on the fringes.

Otto Dix was born in Untermhaus near Gera, in eastern Germany. After working as an apprentice to a decorative house painter in his hometown, he entered Dresden's School of Applied Arts in 1910. His early work was in a colorful expressionistic style (see Expressionism). He was influenced by exhibitions of paintings by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, French artist Paul Gauguin, Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, and Dresden’s own Die Brücke (The Bridge) painters, a group of artists who produced emotionally expressive works.

After World War I, Dix studied painting at Dresden's Academy of Art from 1919 to 1922. In 1934 the German Nazi government featured Dix’s work prominently in several exhibitions of what they called 'degenerate art.' He was forbidden to teach or exhibit, and turned to less confrontational themes of allegory and landscape painting until he was drafted into the army in 1945. He spent time in a French prisoner-of-war camp, and after the war returned to Germany, where he painted portraits and biblical scenes until his death.