German painter and graphic artist Otto Dix (1891-1969) became best known for his work in the 1920s as the leading exponent of Die Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity). His works of social criticism were called "degenerate" by the Nazis.

Otto Dix was born December 2, 1891, in Untermhaus (Thuringia) of working class parents with arts and crafts inclinations. While attending the Volksschule from 1899 to 1905 he showed talent enough to be apprenticed to a decorative painter in nearby Gera. Dix encountered modern art in his travels and in Dresden, where he studied at the School of Decorative Art from 1909 to 1914. Influence by the early German artists Dürer and Cranach was soon succeeded by that of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. By 1912 Dix had made contact with the Expressionists, experience of which provided the footing for his mature art.

It was while serving in the army from 1915 to 1918 that Dix first...