Max Beckmann

After studying at the Weimar Art School (1900 – 1903), Max Beckmann moved to Berlin and was involved in the Berlin Secession. Paul Cassirer became his art dealer during this time and promoted his artistic career. In 1914 Beckmann founded the Freie Secession Berlin, but was called up for military service and served as a volunteer nurse at the outbreak of the First World War, whereupon he suffered a nervous breakdown in 1915. A new beginning came with a move to Frankfurt a. M. His war experiences led to a decisive change in motifs and style in his artistic works from 1915 onwards. In the following years Beckmann created his most important graphic cycles, such as “Gesichter” (1915-1918). The works in this portfolio in particular impressively portray the period in which Beckmann suffered his mental and physical breakdown and worked through it artistically. In the 1920s his recognition grew increasingly, he celebrated exhibition successes in numerous cities (Mannheim, Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Zurich, Basel, Venice, Paris). Internationally, his fame also grew through exhibitions in New York (1926 – 1932). In 1928 his recognition in Germany reached a high point with the “Reichsehrenpreis Deutscher Kunst” and a comprehensive Beckmann retrospective in Mannheim, and in 1932 with the establishment of a Beckmann room in the Nationalgalerie in Berlin. From 1925 also active as a teacher at the Frankfurt Städelschule, Beckmann was summarily dismissed by the National Socialists in 1933, then left Frankfurt and lived in Berlin until his emigration. In 1937, more than 20 of his works were shown in the exhibition “Degenerate Art” in Munich and at least 590 of his works were confiscated from German museums. In the same year he fled with his second wife Mathilde (“Quappi”) first to Amsterdam, then later to the USA. In America, Beckmann accepted various professorships at art schools, most recently at the Art School of the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and continued to receive great recognition. His works can be seen in numerous important museums worldwide, such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Tate Modern in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum Folkwang in Essen and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt.