Biographical/Historical Information

The art historian, author, and collector Paul Westheim was born in Eschwege, Germany into an orthodox Jewish family in 1886. After studying art history in Frankfurt and Berlin, he established himself as a professional writer and became the editor of the illustrated art periodical ‘Das Kunstblatt’ in 1917. His own collection of mainly expressionist artworks was a major witness of German art in Weimar Germany. In 1933, Westheim escaped to Paris, and after having been interned in French camps in Les Milles and Gurs, he escaped to Lisbon and then settled in Mexico. On his first post-war visit to Germany, Paul Westheim died in Berlin in 1963.

The painter and printmaker Otto Dix was born in Untermhaus, Germany in 1891. After studies in Dresden, Dix became known for his harsh representations of life in the Weimar Republic with works ranging from Expressionism to Dada, and to ‘Neue Sachlichkeit’. He taught art in Dresden until the Nazis branded him a “degenerate artist”, and he was banned. After serving in WW II and ending as a prisoner of war, he returned to Dresden, resuming his artistic work to wide acclaim. Otto Dix died in West-Germany in 1969.

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Citation

Paul Westheim / photograph of a lithograph by Otto Dix, circa 1920, Leo Baeck Institute, F 3778.