Max Karl Friedrich Beckmann (1884 - 1950) - German painter, graphic artist, sculptor, known for his strong figurative style of works. A bright representative of the trends of expressionism and new materiality, Max Beckmann gained worldwide fame in the 1920s; his numerous exhibitions were held in Berlin, Dresden, Paris, New York.
In Germany, his work was awarded the Imperial Honorary Prize, and the city of Düsseldorf awarded the artist with a Gold Medal for his contribution to German art. As a successful artist, he became a professor at the Frankfurt State Academy, taught at the Stödel Art Institute, and taught master classes at other educational institutions. But with the Nazis coming to power, the artist was removed from office, the new government declared Max Beckmann's works hostile to the state, and his paintings were exhibited in Munich at the exhibition "Degenerate Art". This exposition forced the artist to leave his homeland, where he did not return even after the fall of fascism.
Education
Max Beckmann was born on February 12, 1884 in Leipzig, was the third child in the family of the manager of a mill agency. His first surviving works are a watercolor illustration for the fairy tale of 1896 and the first self-portrait of 1897.
Since 1900, Beckman studied at the Weimar Grand-Ducal School of Arts, a modern and liberal institution, where the direction of impressionism and work in the open air were practiced.
Since 1901, Beckman studied in the class of the Norwegian portrait painter Karl Smith, whom he considered his only teacher. Already at that time, characteristic forms manifested in Beckmann, a tendency to ironic portrayal and grotesque, manifested themselves.
Beginning of the creative path
In 1903, the young artist went to Paris, where he attended the private academy of Colarossi, tried his hand at pointillism, and created preparatory work for the first exhibitions. In Paris, he is particularly impressed by the works of Paul Cezanne.
Then Beckman travels to Amsterdam, The Hague, Scheveningen, where he paints landscapes, studies the works of Terborch, Rembrandt, Vermeer. In 1904, Max went on a trip to Italy, which ended in Geneva. The manner of execution of his summer seascapes is opposed to European Art Nouveau and Japanese. In some works of that time, an individual style appears, expressed by the fragmentary composition.
Family and early work
In 1904, Beckman moved to Berlin, where he founded his own studio. In the summer of 1905, under the influence of the works of Luke Signorelli and Hans von Maris, the artist Max Beckmann creates his first of the masterpieces “Young people by the sea”. A year later, for this picture he received the Villa Romana Award. In the same year, with two works, the artist takes part in the 11th exhibition of the Berlin Secession.
After the death of his mother in 1906, Beckman, in the tradition of Edward Munch, reflects the death scenes on his two canvases. After marrying Minne Tube, a college friend, singer and artist, he goes with his wife to Paris and then to Florence as a scholarship holder for Villa Romana. There, the artist paints portraits of Minna Tube, one of which is in the museum of the Hamburg Kunsthalle.
Beckmann designs his house in the northern district of Berlin, where the couple moved in 1907. In the same period, the artist joins the Berlin Secession. Combining impressionism and neoclassicism in his works, he increasingly depicts violent disaster scenes on large-scale canvases. At the same time, Beckman is careful about the subtle atmospheric transmission in the images of interiors and the portrait genre, especially for self-portraits. Drawing has always remained the basis of Beckman's art, and in those years he created graphic images in the spirit of perfection of the old masters.
In 1908, the couple went to Paris, and in the fall, the son of Peter appeared in the family. The following year, Beckman's first solo exhibition was held abroad. In 1909, the artist creates a "Double Portrait" Gainsborough style, depicting himself and his wife in the picture. With this work, Max Beckmann erected a monument to his relationship with Minna Beckmann-Tube - lover, life partner and colleague.
Prewar glory
The artist’s popularity was promoted a lot by the German-American art dealer Israel Ber Noumann, organizing advertising, exhibitions and sales of works by Beckmann, whose fame reached its peak in 1913. In 1914, the 29-year-old artist left the Berlin secession and founded the Free Secession.
The artist continued the search for a modern form of figurative painting. He protected his work from radical abstractionism, expressionism and futurism. Having proclaimed in March 1912 that the laws of art are eternal and unchanging, Beckman set himself the goal of expanding the legacy of the traditional genres of mythology through symbolism. The transmission of space and light in his works of that time follows the principles of classical art, and the painting style gravitates towards impressionism. In 1919, with the painting "Night" Max Beckman became one of the founders of the movement, which was called "new objectivity" or "magical realism", and later was designated by the term "new materiality".
After 1910, Beckmann distanced himself from art associations, but continued to participate in major annual exhibitions in Mannheim (1913), Dresden (1927, where he was a member of the jury), Cologne (1929), Stuttgart (1930), Essen (1931), Koenigsberg and Danzig (1932), Hamburg (1936).
War
In World War I, Beckman volunteered to work as a military paramedic. In 1914, he served as a voluntary medical assistant on the eastern front, and the following year in Flanders. His drawings of that period reflect the entire severity of military life; Beckman's new, rigidly outlined style began to form in them. The mental state experienced by the artist in the war leads to a mental breakdown, and he briefly goes to serve at the Imperial Institute of Hygiene, and then finally moves to Frankfurt.
The temporary phase of his nervous breakdown was the beginning of a new work. Reflecting the horrors of war, a ruthless style is transformed in graphics and painting, embodied in self-portraits, lithographic cycles "Hell War" and "Post-War Reality".
Around 1916, the direction in the art of Max Beckman changed from impressionism to expressionism. For the works, “densely packed” compositions with dynamic, sharply and sharply exaggerated figures became characteristic. The main ideas of the works are becoming more complex and esoteric, it is difficult to understand them without knowing the sources that the artist turned to.
Post-war activities
With the end of the war, the content of the work was increasingly determined by the theme of the theater, circus, cabaret and carnival. An artistic breakthrough occurred in the 1920s - numerous exhibitions were held in Berlin, Dresden, Paris, New York and made the works of Max Beckmann famous. Publisher Reinhard Piper publishes books illustrated by Beckman, and in 1924 he published his large monograph.
In Vienna, the artist meets the 20-year-old Matilda Kaulbach. Having divorced his first wife, he marries Matilda, whom he calls the Viennese nickname Kvappi. Beckman paints many of her portraits, making the young wife one of the most portrayed women in the history of art.
Since 1925, the artist re-travels to Italy and Paris, where he receives wide public recognition. Since 1925, he lectures at the School of Applied Arts in Frankfurt am Main, and in 1929 becomes a professor. In 1928, his fame in Germany reached its zenith. A large retrospective of Beckmann's works, compiled by Gustav F. Hartlaub, takes place in Kunsthalle Mannheim. Were shown oil paintings, watercolors, pastels and drawings by the artist for the period 1906-1930. Beckmann receives the Imperial Honorary Prize, and the city of Düsseldorf awarded him the Gold Medal.
At the Carnegie Institute International Exhibition in Pittsburgh, The Lodge was awarded an award. In August 1930, Max Beckmann's personal foreign exhibition was successfully held, and a month later an exposition of his printed graphics followed at the Basel Museum of Art, which was then exhibited in Zurich. In 1931, the artist's first solo exhibition was held in Paris, at the Galerie de la Renaissance, and the next year another one at the Bing gallery in Paris. Until the beginning of the 30s, Beckmann was increasingly perceived as a major artist of international scale.
Representative of "Degenerative Art"
Since 1930, the NSDAP has become the second largest faction in the Reichstag, the political conditions in Germany have changed, and with them the views on culture. The complete seizure of power by the Nazis suddenly ended Max Beckman's career. In April 1933, he was fired without prior notice as a professor at Frankfurt State Academy. The artist moved to Berlin, where he rented an apartment.
The most significant stage in Beckmann's Berlin period between 1933 and 1937 was the creation of triptychs. The artist replaced the large-scale formats of his early works in 1930 with works consisting of three parts, united by a common idea. Not only the size of the works has changed radically, but also its attitude to the creative process surrounding the world, life and destiny. Studying occultism and Theosophy, reflecting on the idea of invading the visible into the invisible world, he revives allegory in his works.
Under the National Socialists, in 1936, a complete ban on works of contemporary art began to apply with respect to the acquisition and exhibitions of state museums, trade and, in some cases, production. Max Beckman became one of the most hated artists for the Nazis. 190 German works were confiscated from German museums as “degenerative”. Some of these works are sold abroad, others are destroyed.
On July 17, 1937, the Beckmann couple emigrated to Amsterdam, and two days later the Nazis opened the Degenerative Art exhibition in Munich, which was then shown throughout Germany. Beckman was represented at the exhibition by ten paintings and twelve graphic works. The couple lived in Amsterdam for 10 years, another move to Paris became impossible for them, because in September 1939 the Second World War began.
Creator in Exile
Max Beckman visualized the exile's experience through images of wandering and circus artists, or cabaret singers, wearing masks for their performances. Another theme in Beckmann's artistic imagery is carnival. An example of this is Self-Portrait with a Mountain (1938), one of two self-portraits painted in Amsterdam by Beckmann in the first months of his exile. In the triptych "Carnival" (1943), the author depicts himself in a white robe of Pierrot in the middle of the central panel.
Beckman’s work was regularly attended by clowning and acting, with which the artist symbolized useless human activity. The work of Begin the Beguine (1946, Michigan) creates a joyful dance mood under the threat of hidden danger. Masquerade (1948) shows the same connection between the festive and the gloomy. In this work, as in many paintings, Beckman portrays himself and his wife as a fashionably dressed couple.
Post-war years
After the war, Max Beckman categorically ruled out returning to Berlin. He declined an invitation from the Academy in Munich, the College of Art in Berlin and the School of Applied Arts in Darmstadt. In 1947, he and his wife moved to the United States, the same year he entered a professor at the University of Washington Art School in St. Louis, and since 1949 he taught at the art school at the Brooklyn Museum. And yet he recognized himself as an exile. In America, Beckman spent the last three years of his life. Here he had to draw all his optimism and strength, given the country's monstrous grandeur and cosmopolitan life in New York.
After emigrating to the United States, in addition to allegorical paintings, Max Beckman created several watercolors, including the Plaza (hotel lobby) and Night in the City (both 1950s). The shapes of his figures became even bolder, and the colors more piercing. We should not forget that Beckman's last years were very successful, he received relatively high recognition in the remaining three years, lived by the artist in the New World. Max Beckman died on December 27, 1950 in New York from heart failure on his way home from work.