Max Beckmann
Beckmann, Max
(mäks bĕk`män), 1884–1950, German painter. A member of the Berlin secessionsecession,in art, any of several associations of progressive artists, especially those in Munich, Berlin, and Vienna, who withdrew from the established academic societies or exhibitions. The artists of Munich formed a secession in 1892 that spread to other German cities.
..... Click the link for more information. from 1908 to 1911, he was impressionistic in his early style. A subsequent expressionistic phase was altered c.1917 by the savage new objectivitynew objectivity
(Ger. Neue Sachlichkeit), German art movement of the 1920s. The chief painters of the movement were George Grosz and Otto Dix, who were sometimes called verists.
..... Click the link for more information. of George GroszGrosz, George
, 1893–1959, German-American caricaturist, draughtsman, and painter, b. Berlin. Before and during World War I he contributed drawings on proletarian themes to Illustration and other German periodicals. He was associated with the Dada group at that time.
..... Click the link for more information. . Beckmann developed a richer, more personal, more dramatic, and more symbolic art in the 1920s. The power of his allegorical expressionism increased through the war years, which he spent in Amsterdam after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1937. Beckmann came to the United States in 1947 and taught at Washington Univ., St. Louis, and at the Brooklyn Museum School, New York City. His well-known triptych, Departure (1932–35; Mus. of Modern Art, N.Y.C.) is one of 18 powerful monumental triptychs that culminated in The Argonauts (1950).
Bibliography
See B. C. Buenger, Max Beckmann: Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements (1997); S. Bieber and B. Buenger, ed., Max Beckmann (2003); R. Spieler, Beckmann (2011); H. Belting and B. M. Burgi, Max Beckmann: The Landscapes (2011); D. Anfam et al., Beckmann and America (2012); K. Schick and H. Gassner, ed. Max Beckmann: The Still Lifes (2015).