Müller, Otto

Otto Müller, (born 1874, Liebau, Ger.—died Sept. 24, 1930, Breslau, Ger.), German painter and printmaker who became a member of the Expressionist movement. He is especially known for his characteristic paintings of nudes and gypsy women.

When, in 1910, he joined Die Brücke, a Dresden-based group of Expressionist artists, his work still displayed the early influence of the curvilinear art of Jugendstil, the German Art Nouveau movement. But his radically elongated figures reveal his affinity for the work of the Expressionist sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck. He taught at the Breslau Academy from 1919 until his death. Like the work of many other modern German artists, his was declared “decadent” when the Nazis gained power in Germany in 1933.