Description and Interpretation of Paintings in Teamwork

2. Biographies

In addition to the pictures the students receive another Worksheet with information concerning the corresponding artist (Worksheet No. 2 a, b or c).

The information for the endnotes is as follows:

Worksheet No. 2a Otto Dix

• Otto Dix was born in 1891 in Gera/Thüringen.⁵

• He was raised in a provincial family.⁶

• Dix started his training to become an ornamental painter in 1905.⁷

• Otto volunteered at the beginning of the First World War.⁸

• As a private he took part in battles and experienced the horror of the trench warfare first hand. Dix was wounded several times, amongst other things by shell fragments.⁹

• Dix described war as an irreversible element into the cycle of becoming and passing.¹⁰

• Dix produced a lot of drawings and paintings in the trenches. As a result of this the terror of the war gave him new inspiration.¹¹

• Otto Dix died 1969 in Singen/Germany.¹²

Worksheet No. 2b George Grosz

• George Grosz was born in 1893 in Berlin.¹³

• From 1909 to 1911 Grosz went to Königliche Kunstakademie in Dresden and he got a certificate of honor there.¹⁴

• He started studying in 1912 at the Atelier of Emil Orlik in Berlin.¹⁵

• Grosz volunteered at the beginning of the war in 1914, but he was released in 1916 because of a suppurative frontal sinusitis.¹⁶

• George Grosz considered himself a humanist and he has been critical of the enthusiasm for the war, although he was initially enthusiastic as well. But the euphoria soon abated and horror and disgust remained. Grosz said that the time of war had had a negative impact on him.¹⁷

• Because of his aversion to the warring Germany, Georg Grosz Americanized his name to George Grosz.¹⁸

• In 1917 he was called up once again, but he refused to serve and he was finally dismissed.¹⁹

• George Grosz moved to New York in 1933, shortly before the Nazis came to power in Germany.²⁰

• Grosz and his family came back to Germany in 1959, but he died from heart failure less than a month after arriving in Berlin.²¹

Worksheet No. 2c Max Beckmann

• Max Beckmann was born in 1884 in Leipzig.²²

• He studied from 1900 until 1903 at the Großherzoglichen Kunstschule Weimar, from 1903 until 1904 in Paris and from 1904 on he studied in Berlin.²³

• The beginning of the First World War was most opportune and timely for him. As an artist he wanted to gain more experience and inspiration.²⁴

• In 1914 Beckmann joined the nursing service. From 1914 to 1915 he served as a medical orderly in a hospital in Belgium.²⁵

• In 1915 he was temporarily suspended after he collapsed.²⁶

• Beckmann processed experience in his paintings and confirmed the stupidity of war and the failure of policies and society.²⁷

• Max Beckmann died 1950 in New York City.²⁸

3. Tasks