Otto Dix Quotes about Art

Otto Dix was a famous German painter and printmaker associated with the Expressionists and the Neue Sachlichkeit or New Objectivity art movements. He is best known for his probing portraits and his depictions of the horrors of war. Famous Otto Dix artworks include “Dr. Mayer-Hermann”, “Hugo Erfurth with Dog”, “Three Wenches”, “War Cripples”, “Metropolis”, “Three Prostitutes on the Street”, “Die sieben Todsünden (The Seven Deadly Sins)”, “Portrait of the Dancer Anita Berber”, “Stormtroopers Advancing Under Gas”, “Prague Street”, and “Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden”.

Mini biography: Born Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix on the 2nd of December, 1891 in Untermhaus, Germany (now Gera, Thuringia). His mother was Louise and his father Franz Dix was an iron foundry worker. Dix married Martha Lindner in 1923 and they had three children: Nelly, Ursus and Jan Dix. The artist died on the 25th of July, 1969 in Singen, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany at the age of 77. Otto Dix is buried at the Friedhof Hemmenhofen in Gaienhofen, Landkreis Konstanz, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

List of Famous Otto Dix Art Quotes

Lice, rats, barbed wire, fleas, shells, bombs, caves, corpses, blood, liquor, mice, cats, gas, artillery, filth, bullets, mortars, fire, steel: that is what war is! It is all the work of the Devil! Otto Dix

If I can’t be famous, I want at least to be infamous. Otto Dix

Everybody thinks they know what art should be. But very few of them have the sense that is necessary to experience painting, that is the sense of sight, that sees colors and forms as living reality in the picture. Otto Dix

It’s all the same to me. I must keep the first impression fresh. If it is lost, I must find it again. Otto Dix

I had the feeling that there was a dimension of reality that had not been dealt with in art: the dimension of ugliness. Otto Dix

If one paints someone’s portrait, one should not know him if possible. No knowledge. I do not want to know him at all. I want only to see what is there, the outside. The inner follows by itself. It is mirrored in the visible. Otto Dix

The reason for doing it is the desire to create. I’ve got to do it! Otto Dix

The first impression is the right one. Once I have finished his picture, I can perhaps revise my impression and say, he really isn’t such a beast as it seemed. Otto Dix

I suddenly got very interested in etching. I had a lot to say, I had a subject. Wash off the acid, put on the aquatint: a wonderful technique that you can use to get as many different shades and tones as you want. The ‘doing’ aspect of art becomes tremendously interesting when you start doing etchings; you get to be a real alchemist. Otto Dix

I’m such a realist, you know, that I have to see everything with my own eyes in order to confirm that it’s like that. I have to experience all the ghastly, bottomless depths for life for myself.. it’s for that reason that I went to war, and for that reason I volunteered. Otto Dix

Otto Dix Self Portrait Painting

More on Famous German Artist Otto Dix

How has Otto Dix influenced your art making? Is he one of your favorite famous German expressionist painter? Let us know what you think about Otto Dix in the comments below.

Related or similar popular artists include: Max Pechstein, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Beckmann, Georg Baselitz, and other Famous German Artists.