Biography
Born in 1874 in Liebau, in German Silesia, possibly to a Romany mother, Otto Müller’s first artistic training was as a lithographer in Gorlitz and Breslau. This was followed by periods of study at the Dresden and Munich Academies, abandoned in 1898. Originally painting in Symbolist and Impressionist styles, his move to Berlin in 1908 brought him under the influence of the Expressionists, and he joined Die Brücke (The Bridge) in 1910. When this group disbanded in 1913 he joined Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). His paintings simplified form, colour and contour in order to produce a sense of harmony between man and nature. He fought for the Germans in the First World War in both France and Germany, and became a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Breslau when the war ended. He died in 1930, but many of his works were still deemed degenerate and seized from German museums by the Nazis in 1937.
