Otto Dix (1891-1969) is one of the most important German artists of the 20th century. His advocacy for realism made him famous in the 1920s; however, it caused him to be condemned as an artist during the National Socialism era. In 1933 he lost his professorship at the Art Academy Dresden, his works were classified as “Degenerate Art”. Otto Dix withdrew to the Lake of Constance close to the Swiss border and from 1933—1945 created mostly landscapes, which reflect the upheavals and contradictions of the time in a surprising way. The striking thing about his landscape images is his use of painting techniques of the old masters, which is in sharp contrast to his expressionistic work. His landscapes are seen as images of an “inner emigration” and with their downright sinister emptiness they convey a discontent of the time.

In the 1930s Switzerland is an important point of reference in Otto Dix’s paintings as well as in his drawings. However, his artistic and biographical connections in Switzerland have been taken little notice of up until now. The Art Museum Graubünden follows up on this in a unique exhibition as well as in a detailed publication. At the centre of the exhibition are the works by Otto Dix created at the end of the 1930s, when the artist spent a longer period in the Engadine for health reasons, and which have never before been shown together. The painting San Gian in Winter from the collection of the Art Museum Graubünden can now for the first time be displayed in a larger context of further oil paintings and a row of extremely fine drawings.
The exhibition is curated by Stephan Kunz and Prof. Dr. Ina Jessen.