Max Beckmann

• His early work was made in a romantic-naturalistic style.

• He was later influenced by Impressionism.

• Ultimately, his work developed into a form of Expressionism

• Through painting he attempted to illuminate universal (often tragic) truths.

• Here is Beckmann’s Self-Portrait as a medical Orderly, 1915.

• His service in the trenches of Flanders nearly drove him mad, and he was dismissed from the army in 1915, suffering from hallucinations and depression.

• After taking part in W.W.I, where he was surrounded by death, Beckmann often returns to the theme of man's inhumanity to man.

• Many of his later works depict violence and suffering taken to extremes.

• Beckmann was influenced by Northern Renaissance, & Northern Gothic artists.

• This can be seen in his cramped compositions with shallow spaces full of figures.

• He was also influenced by Munch who he met in Paris.

• This can be seen in the distortions of form and colour, as well as the flattening of space.

Rogier van der Weyden

Northern Renaissance

Decent From the Cross

1435

• The subject shows Beckmann's interest in Northern Renaissance painting.

• Christian subject matter and style owes a lot to van der Weyden's Descent From the Cross.

• The Theme suggests suffering & loss.

• Space is narrow, compressed, & stage like. Descent From The Cross, 1917

• The stiff, Elongated/emaciated body of Christ extends to the 4 corners of the composition.

• Among the entangled figures this creates visual tension.

• Shifting perspective (women seen from above, & soldiers seen from below) also contributes to tension.

• Composition - closed with overlapping diagonals creates a sense of chaos, even violence.

• Ladder (open composition) can symbolize escape or ascension.

Descent From The Cross, 1917

• In Self-portrait with Cigarette (1923) extreme contrast and shadowing in the face and eyes make the figure appear menacing.

• Beckmann resembles a judge without mercy.

• The figure stares from behind a curtain, giving the work a theatrical quality that will be seen in other works.

• This is almost like a small stage where the figure acts out the disguise of absolute power.

• He painted dozens on self-portraits.

• After WWI in 1919 the Treaty of Versailles is signed.

• Politicians and historians -- have tended to blame the rise of the Nazis on Versailles.

• The main terms of the Versailles Treaty included: (1) an acceptance of Germany's guilt in causing the war,

(2) German reparations of £6,600 million

• Germans were left impoverished

and without pride.

• By the end of 1920, the Nazi Party had about 3,000 members. A year later Hitler became its official leader.

Family Picture 1920

• Subject - Artist & his family whom he is at this time estranged from.

• Mystery King - possible personal symbol for the painter (philosopher king)

• Artist- bandaged like war casualty

• psychological damage

• Wife - looking into mirror (vanity)

• Servant - reads isolated & separate (disinterest)

• Son -isolated & innocent

Sister-in-law - stares at sister (jealous)

• Composition - Tense scene full of anxiety, • Cubist influence – The perspective of the space is

depicted from multiple viewpoints creating tension and instability.

• Figures are puppet like, uncommunicative and psychologically isolated.

• They are dehumanized by social conditions.• They share nothing but the cramped space.

• The Reichstag (German Parliament) was burned. This enabled Adolf Hitler to seize power under the pretext of protecting the nation from threats to its security.

• The persecution of German Jews begins.

1933

• Hitler becomes German Chancellor.

• The Nazi’s take control of Germany.

1933

• Around the time that Departure was painted Beckmann was labeled degenerate and removed form his teaching position.

• He had good reason to be nervous about the rise of the Nazis and the Fascists in Europe.

Departure 1932-33

Subject : Allegory of the triumphant voyage of the modern spirit through and

beyond the agony of the modern world.

• Triptych - three panel painting (like the Merode Altarpiece)

• Left panel - Nazi torture • Right panel – the madness & despair of the era • Middle panel - escape & affirmation

• Beckmann considered himself the Recorder of unofficial history (the psycho-history) of a Europe gone mad with cruelty, ideological murder, & depravation.

• The left panel may symbolize Nazi torture and brutality.

• One male figure is in a trashcan and the other is being tortured.

• The pose of the female figure suggests something sexually sinister.

• The right panel suggests the madness and despair of the era.

• The drum player may symbolize the propaganda, nationalism, and fanfare of the Nazis.

• The blind man in uniform – obedience.

• The middle panel contains symbols that suggest escape and freedom.

• It is bright with a limitless horizon and open space.

• It is not dark and enclosed like the outside panels.

• departing boat = new start• baby = hope• large strong figures = confidence• net full of fish = bounty

The Degenerate Art show 1937 & The Great German Art Show 1937

• Modern art shown as part of a cultural disease.

• Blamed Jewish critics and artists for cultural collapse

• Hitler approved art.• Art that embodied the

virtues of the Nazi party.

“One will no longer discuss or deal with these corrupters of art. They are fools liars and criminals who belong in insane asylums and prisons.” Hitler

• Beckmann left for Amsterdam the day after the Degenerate Art Show!