Otto Müller (painter)

After being demobilised in 1919, he started studying painting at the Burg Giebichenstein Academy of Arts and Crafts, where he was a student of Professor Erwin Hahs (1887–1970).

In 1927, both Müller and Helmut Schröder joined a class taught by Charles Crodel, newly appointed to Burg Giebichstein as professor for painting and graphics.

Müller is also indebted to Erwin Hahs for training his formal means of expression in terms of a constructive composition encompassing abstract art.

Loosely composed, often highly colourful and reminiscent of impressionism, Crodel's paintings provided Müller with fresh artistic impetus.

In 1930, Müller entered employment in the paint factory at the "Technische Chemikalien- und Compagnie GmbH" in Halle as a laboratory technician and departmental manager.

In 1946, he became a member of the Artists Association of the Democratic Republic of Germany – known in German as "Verband Bildender Künstler" (VBK).

The following artists lived in the neighbouring barracks: Richard Horn, Karl-Erich Müller (1917–1998), Herbert Lange and Helmut Schröder.

In March 1948, he took part in an exhibition at the Henning Gallery in Halle, together with Charles Crodel, Kurt Bunge and Karl Rödel (1907–1982).

In 1954, Müller moved to the first new accommodation built in Halle since the end of the war, in Stalinallee 57b (today Merseburger Straße 127).

From 1951 to about 1964, Müller worked in workshops in agriculture, mining and industry, e.g. in the engineering works in Halle, where he produced an oil painting known as „Der Maschinenformer“ (the engine builder), now owned by the Moritzburg foundation at the Kunstmuseum des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt (State Art Museum of Saxony-Anhalt) in Halle.

In the preface to the catalogue, Heinz Schönemann, then the director of the State Gallery, wrote “A pupil himself of Burg Giebichenstein, he could be described as a silent master of the artists of Halle, as so much of their work essentially originated with him.