Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza
From 23 October 2018 to 27 January 2019CaixaForum, Barcelona
From 20 February to 28 May 2019
Max Beckmann (Leipzig, 1884 – New York, 1950) was one of Germany’s leading 20th-century artists. Initially close to Expressionism and New Objectivity, Beckmann developed a unique and independent pictorial style of a realistic type but one filled with symbolic resonances, offering a powerful account of society of his day.
MAX BECKMANN
“Autorretrato con vaso de champagne”
1919, óleo sobre lienzo, Nueva York, Metropolitan Museum of Art - Imágen cortesía del Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org) - © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Curated
by Tomàs Llorens, the exhibition brings together more than 50 works,
including paintings, lithographs and sculptures, organised thematically
into two principal sections. The first, smaller section covers
Beckmann’s years in Germany from the period prior to World War I, when
he first achieved public recognition, to the rise of National Socialism
in the 1930s when he was expelled from the Frankfurt art school where he
taught and was banned from exhibiting in public. The second, larger
part, focuses on the artist’s years in Amsterdam and the United States
where he lived after he was obliged to leave Germany.
Max Beckmann. Quappi With Pink Sweater. 1932-1934. ©VEGAP, Madrid
This part is based on four metaphors relating to exile, understood both literally and as the existential condition of modern man: Masks, which looks at the loss of identity associated with the condition of exile; Electric Babylon, which focuses on the modern city as the capital of exile; The long goodbye, which constructs a parallel between exile and death; and The Sea, a metaphor of the infinite, its powers of seduction and alienation.
Also see:
Max Beckmann. Quappi With Pink Sweater. 1932-1934. ©VEGAP, Madrid
This part is based on four metaphors relating to exile, understood both literally and as the existential condition of modern man: Masks, which looks at the loss of identity associated with the condition of exile; Electric Babylon, which focuses on the modern city as the capital of exile; The long goodbye, which constructs a parallel between exile and death; and The Sea, a metaphor of the infinite, its powers of seduction and alienation.
Also see:
max beckmann in exile
