"How it all began" - Otto Dix's birthplace reopens

The birthplace of Otto Dix (1891-1969) in Gera is being reopened with photographs, sketches and early works by the artist. From December 3 - exactly one day after his 133rd birthday - visitors will be able to tour the building in the historic city center. "It gives a good insight into the early phase of his work," said Holger Peter Saupe, Head of the Gera Art Collection. In addition to the Dix exhibition in the city's late baroque orangery, there will now be two museum hotspots for art lovers. The birthplace has been closed since August in order to prepare for the new exhibition.

Cardboard, paper, woodcuts and pen and ink drawings

On display are works by Dix depicting forest paths, meadows and fields of his Thuringian homeland, often with oil paints on cardboard or paper. There are also portraits in the form of woodcuts or pen and ink drawings. "In his early years, he already captured his immediate surroundings artistically," explained Claudia Schönjahn, who conceived the new exhibition in the birthplace under the motto "How it all began". The Gera art collection has a particularly rich collection of the painter's early and youthful works until around 1910, when Otto Dix left Gera to study at the Dresden School of Arts and Crafts.

A major role even beyond Thuringia

After the opening of the large, multimedia exhibition "Otto Dix - Trust Your Eyes" in October in the Gera Orangery, visitor interest in the birthplace of one of the most important painters of the 20th century "got a real boost", said Saupe. He hopes that the annual number of 16,000 Dix-related visitors could increase significantly. "Our full archive offers many discoveries."

The painter Otto Dix continues to play a major role in museums in the central German region, even beyond Thuringia. The Gunzenhauser Museum in Chemnitz, for example, is entering the 2025 Capital of Culture year with a current exhibition on New Objectivity and Expressionism and an entire floor dedicated to the works of Dix.

How did the artist live as a child?

Also housed in the house where he was born in Gera is a permanent exhibition in which a worker's apartment from around 1900 has been recreated with a matching interior. "This gives everyone a good idea of how the artist lived as a child in Gera and in this house," explained Schönjahn. Dix, who was born in Gera, is considered one of the most important representatives of the New Objectivity art movement. Over the course of his career, he repeatedly changed his style. His works were defamed during the Nazi era.