Otto Gleichmann was a key figure in German expressionism

German Expressionism

German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...

. He produced oil painting

Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

s, watercolor painting

Watercolor painting

Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...

s, sketches

Sketch (drawing)

A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not usually intended as a finished work...

, lithographs and pictures in mixed media.

His works from the 1920s and 1930s were characterised by his bad experiences as a soldier (1915) and his injuries (1916) during the First World War - and his belief that the growth of National Socialism was a bad thing.

He took part in the Hannoversche Sezession from 1918, where he met Kurt Schwitters

Kurt Schwitters

Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as...

, among others, and became friends with Theodor Däubler

Theodor Däubler

Theodor Däubler was a poet and cultural critic in the German language. He was born in Trieste, then part of Austro-Hungary and has been described as "Trieste's most important German-speaking writer"....

. His exhibition was banned, and he was named a degenerate art

Degenerate art

Degenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were...

ist in 1938.

Work and exhibitions

• Selbstbildnis(self-portrait) 1913, Pencil on paper
• Sturm Herrschaften 1915, Pencil on paper
• Irrenparadies II, 1918, Pencil on paper
• Strahlen - Stuerzen (Lines/Rays) Oil on canvas, 1920
• Vor dunkler Landschaft (Against the darker landscape) Oil on canvas , 1920
• Unfassbar, unfasslich sind ihm die Dinge (inconceivable are things for him), Pen and watercolour on paper, 1920
• Kopf einer Greisin Mixed media, 1927
• Leichenschmaus, 1925