otto dix and his wife.

go see otto’s works at the neue gallery today.

i was lucky enough to visit a treasure trove of his art in Stuttgart, Germany.

His life story fuels creative fire. He fought in war. He lived in poverty. His artwork was banned. He was arrested for his expression. He captured people in the depths of rawness. The ugly, the fat, the poor the hungry. The destitute and the prostitute. Life and living and all the realities it brings. Ups and downs. Lows. Highs. He painted the fragmenting powers of war. He chose jolting colors.  Women’s dresses as red as WWI blood.  His most acclaimed protest was Metropolis (1928), a triptych of high society in furs and pearls out for an evening drinking and boogie-oogie-ing. From a modern gaze we think “wow, what a party!” but the left panel reveals the reveling as just a social drug to subdue the realties and responsibilities of war…