Otto Dix

This portrait of the printer, publisher and political agitator Max John was made shortly after the First World War. Otto Dix painted Max John with wide, reddened eyes, a crooked mouth and a sharp-edged bridge of the nose as a reflection of the horrors of war and postwar social upheaval. The picture is an outstanding example of the transition from Expressionism to the Neue Sachlichkeit (the New Objectivity). The picture was part of the collection Dr. Fritz Salo Glaser, Dresden, and was purchased in 1959 by the Augustinermuseum on an auction in Stuttgart. 2007 it was restituted to Dr. Glasers heiress. With the help of the Kulturstiftung der Länder, the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung and the Beauftragter der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien it could be re-transfered to the city of Freiburg.