A Disturbing Reality: The Prints of Max Beckmann

Author(s): Wendy Weitman

Reviewed work(s):
Source: MoMA, No. 19 (Spring, 1995), pp. 18-19
Published by: The Museum of Modern Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4381287 .
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DISTURBING
REALITY

The

Prints

of Max

Beckmann

WendyWeitmnan
My aim is alwaysto get hold of the magicof reality
... to makethe invisiblevisiblethroughreality.
It may sound paradoxical,but it is, in fact, reality
which formsthe mysteryof our existence.'
Ironically,nearthe end of the sameI938 lecturein whichthe German
painterMax Beckmannstatedthis artisticgoal, he protestedagainst
artistswho comment on their own work.Yet thesewordsconcisely
crystallizethe themeof muchof his art.Beckmann's
aim,"tomakethe
invisiblevisiblethroughreality,"suggeststhat the significanceof his
work transcendshis realisticsubjectmatter,requiringa deeperreading of the subjectsthat populatehis art.Speakingthroughthesesubjects,Beckmannaddressedthe "invisible"
issuesthatpreoccupiedhim
throughoutthe tumultuousdecadesof the firsthalf of the twentieth
century:the inherenttensionbetweenmen and women, the brutality of humanity,the alienationof the individual,and the underlying
conceptthatlife itselfis a tragicomictheater.
WorldWarI was the watershedeventin Beckmann's
life, and its
effect on his art cannot be underestimated.Likemany Berlinintellectuals in the years before the war, Beckmann anticipated the
impendinghostilitieswith naiveexcitement.He volunteeredfor the
armymedicalcorpsin 1914 and sawthe war'sdevastationfirsthandin
the fieldhospitalsand infirmaries.By I9I5 his attitudeaboutthe war
had changed,and at the end
of the yearhe suffereda nervous collapse and was dischargedfrommilitaryservice.
Weeping Woman (I9I4)

depicts Beckmann's mother-

in-law, Minna Tube-Romp-

Weeping Woman. Berlin:I. B. Neumann, 1914, published I9I8. Drypoint.9'SXx 7(,.". The Museumof
ModernArt. Gift of AbbyAldrichRockefeller.

18

ler, after hearing of her son's

death at the front, and is
Beckmann's first masterpiece
in drypoint. With her strong
frontal pose and intensity of
expression,
the elderly
woman is imbued with great
dignity in her sorrow. Beckmann's control over the drypoint needle is evidenced in

the variationin the

width of the lines
and the quickly
drawn,long parallel
strokes and crosshatches of the
woman'shat.
In keeping
with a longstanding
tradition in print-

makingBeckmann
issued many of his
most important
printsin portfolios.
In the yearsimmediately following
the war he produced his greatest
concentration of
prints, and issued
two major portfo- TheWayHome,fromthe portfolioHell Berlin:I. B. Neumann,
lios in I919, Faces 19I9. Lithograph.29Y x I9i'. The Museumof ModernArt.Abby
and Hells his most AldrichRockefellerFund.
overtlyand specificallypoliticalwork.AlthoughBeckmannneitherjoinedany political
organizationnorspokeout publiclyon anyof the catastrophicworld
eventshe witnessed,he nonethelesscommunicatedhis feelingsabout
the socialand politicalills of his time throughhis art,and in the case
of Hellquite openly.
BeckmannconceivedHell as an allegoricalwork, as a theatrical
journeythroughthe miserythatwaspostwarBerlin.On one levelthe
journeyreflectsspecificeventsin Berlin'shistory:the murdersof Rosa
Luxemburgand KarlLiebknechtin JanuaryI919. On a moreuniversal level,however,theseprintsharshlyillustrateman'sinhumanityto
man. The firstprint, The WayHome(Ii9I), establishedmanyof the
characteristics
common to each work in the series:a crampedand
illogicalspace,a zigzagcompositionalstructure,and a loose, expressionisticstroke-a stylisticdeparturefromthewartimedrypoints.In
a nocturnalstreetscene the artistapproachesan injuredwarveteran
for directions. Hands and faces predominate as

Beckmanncontrastshis own handswith the stump of the veteran.

blind
Otherironiccontrastsabound:a streetlampagainsttheveteran's
eye and the prostitute's
jauntyposein frontof the men on crutchesin
the background.As he does in otherprintsin the series,in TheWay
HomeBeckmannaggressivelybreaksthroughthe constrainingrectilinearformat,in this caseusinghis shoulder,the streetlampbehind
him, and the dog'stongueto confusethe spatialrenderings.
Beginningin 19I2 Beckmannconcentratedon the portrayalof
ordinarypeople interactingin urbansettings.A reservedand laconic person, Beckmannloved the cafes of Berlin,where he felt comfortablesitting alone and observingthe crowd.He depicteddozens
of crowded interiors, some imaginary, some actual German
nightspots.The bar in Berlin'sHotel Edenwas a meetingplace for
the sophisticatedartisticand literarycrowd.The imposingwoodcut
GroupPortrait,Eden Bar (I923), one of Beckmann'slargestprints,
presentsa close-up, croppedview. The three figuresare typically
uncommunicative; but the women dominate, looming in the
foregroundas the maleretiresin the shadow.The strongblack-andwhite contrastof the woodcut magnifiesthe women'smonumentality. A snapshot effect is achieved, in part by decapitating the
backgroundmusicians, which endows the scene with a sense of
evokesthe
momentarystillness.This bold, frozenimagepersuasively
shallownessBeckmannperceivedin the Berlinof the 1920S and the
alienationof the individualin this aggressiveurbanenvironment.
As the politicalsituationin Germanystabilized,Beckmannno
longer commented upon individual events or settings. The lifetheaterimages,as most poignantlyseen in the I921 portfolioAnnual Fair,offer insteadopportunitiesfor broaderpsychologicalcomment. Beckmannrepeatedlypictureshimselfas a directorand actor
in thesemetaphoricalportrayalsof carnivalsand cabarets.In fact,he
made over eighty individualself-portraitpaintings,drawings,and
prints-more than any artistsince Rembrandt-depicting himself
in a varietyof moodsand styles.

In the masterful
Self-Portraitin Bowler
Hat (I92I), Beckmann
presents himself as a
successfulmiddle-class
man,starklyfrontaland
holding his ubiquitous
cigarette.Yet the poignant expressionlends a
mysteryto the imageas
his penetrating gaze
engages the viewer. It
alludesto a realitydeeper than surfaceappearances.His faceis tightly
framedby the caton the Self-Portraitin BowlerHat. Berlin:1. B. Neumann,1921,
published1922 or later.Drypoint. I2Y4 9>'. The Musuem
left, the vase on the of ModernArt. Gift of EdwardM. M. Warburg.
right,and the imposing
hat above,sharpeningthe focus.The heavilyworkedcross-hatching
andvelvetyburrof the drypointcreatea richnessof tone thatdisplays
his virtuosityas a printmakerby this time.
The overwhelmingmajorityof Beckmann's372 prints (which
are all black-and-whiteand linearin style) date from I9I8 to 1922.
Afterthe mid-I92os,he madeprintsonly sporadically.The renewed
interestin colorand volumetricform,which characterizes
his paintings of the mid-I92os,may partiallyaccountfor this decline in his
X

printmaking activities.

In I947, afterten yearsas an emigrein Holland, Beckmannand his

wife movedto St. Louis,wherehe accepteda teachingpositionat the
art school of WashingtonUniversity.A consummateprintmakerin
the historicGermangraphictradition,Beckmanndied in New York
City in I950.

Thisarticlehasbeenextractedfrom
WendyWeritmans
essayin thecatalogueMaxBeckmannPrintsfromThe Museumof ModernArt,publishedby TheMuseumofModernArt and theModernArtMuseumof
FortWorth.
Max BeckmannPrints,on view throughMay 9, was coorganizedby
WendyWeitman,AssociateCurator,Departmentof Printsand IllustratedBooks,TheMuseumof ModernArt, New York,andJamesL.
Fisher,formerCurator,theModernArtMuseumof Fort Worth,Texas.
Thisexhibitionofapproximately
prints,drawnfrom thecoleighty-five
lectionof TheMuseumofModernArt,presentsworkfromallperiodsof
Beckmann's
printmakingcareer.
Priorto its New Yorkshowing,Max BeckmannPrintstraveledto
theModernArt Museumof Fort Worth;the Centerfor the FineArts,
Museum
Miami; The ToledoMuseumofArt, Ohio;the San Francisco
of ModernArt; the WilliamsCollegeMuseumof Art, Williamstown,
and theMus6edu Quebec,Canada.
Massachusetts;
GroupPortrait,EdenBar,trialproof.1923. Woodcut.I94 x I9gy'. The Museum
of ModernArt.AbbyAldrichRockefellerFund.

i. Max Beckmann,On My Painting(New York:BucholzGallery,Curt Valentin,1940, P. 4.

This was translatedfroma 1938lectureBeckmanndeliveredat BurlingtonGalleries,London.

19