“In late December 1950, Max Beckmann set out from his apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to see his latest self-portrait on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. On the corner of Sixty-Ninth Street and Central Park West, he suffered a fatal heart attack. The poignant circumstances of the German artist’s death inspired this focused exhibition, which presents works Beckmann painted or completed in New York during the last sixteen months of his life along with earlier paintings (1920 – 48) now in New York collections. During Beckmann’s ten-year exile in Amsterdam from 1937 to 1947, a consequence of the rise of National Socialism in his native country and the outbreak of World War II, Americans saw him as a heroic figure and admired his stoic endurance. After the war, he rejected offers to teach in Germany, instead accepting a temporary position in Saint Louis in 1947. Settling in the United States for good in 1948, he regarded his immigration to America as “marking the end” of his exile. In early September 1949 he moved to Manhattan, describing it as “a prewar Berlin multiplied a hundredfold,” and began teaching at the Brooklyn Museum Art School.
Although Beckmann was new to the city, his work had preceded him by more than twenty years — largely due to the efforts of two German art dealers from Berlin: J. B. Neumann and Curt Valentin. Through their exhibitions of his work, many important paintings entered New York collections, as shown in these galleries.” — Introductory Wall Text
Max Beckmann (German, Leipzig 1884–1950 New York). Self-Portrait with a Cigarette, 1923. Oil on canvas, 23 3/4 × 15 7/8 in. (60.3 × 40.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Dr. and Mrs. F. H. Hirschland, 1956. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Self-Portrait with Horn, 1938. Oil on canvas, 43 1/4 × 39 1/4 in. (109.9 × 101 cm). Neue Galerie New York and Private Collection. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Self-Portrait in Blue Jacket, 1950. Oil on canvas, 55 1/8 × 36 in. (140 × 91.4 cm). Framed: 66 15/16 in. × 48 in. × 3 3/16 in. (170 × 121.9 × 8.1 cm). Saint Louis Art Museum, Bequest of Morton D. May. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Family Picture, 1920. Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 × 39.3 in. (65.1 × 100 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, 1935. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Galleria Umberto, 1925. Oil on canvas, 44 5/8 × 19 13/16 in. (113.3 × 50.3 cm). Framed: 52 × 27 1/8 in. (132.1 × 68.9 cm). Private Collection, Courtesy Neue Galerie, New York. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. The Bark, 1926. Oil on canvas, 70 × 35 in. (177.8 × 88.9 cm). Framed: 71 1/2 × 36 1/8 in. (181.6 × 91.8 cm). Richard L. Feigen, New York. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. The Old Actress, 1926. Oil on canvas, 39 9/16 × 27 3/4 in. (100.5 × 70.5 cm). Frame: 44 × 32 1/2 in. (111.8 × 82.6 cm). Private Collection, New York. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Paris Society, 1925 / 1931 / 1947. Oil on canvas, 43 × 69 1/8 in. (109.2 × 175.6 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Departure, 1932-1933. Oil on canvas. Central panel: 84 3/4 × 45 3/8 in. (215.3 × 115.3 cm).Left Panel: 84 3/4 × 39 1/4 in. (215.3 × 99.7 cm). Right Panel: 84 3/4 × 39 1/4 in. (215.3 × 99.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Given anonymously (by exchange), 1942. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Quappi in Grey, 1948. Oil on canvas, 42 1/2 × 31 1/8 in. (108 × 79.1 cm). Frame: 55 × 44 in. (139.7 × 111.8 cm). Private Collection, New York. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Beginning, 1949. Oil on canvas. Overall: 69 x 125 1/2 in. (175.3 x 318.8 cm); left (a): 65 × 33 1/2 in. (165.1 × 85.1 cm); center (b): 69 × 59 in. (175.3 × 149.9 cm); right (c): 65 × 33 1/2 in. (165.1 × 85.1 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876-1967), 1967. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Falling Man, 1950. Oil on canvas, 55 1/2 × 35 in. (141 × 88.9 cm). Frame: 62 1/4 × 41 1/4 × 2 3/4 in. (158.1 × 104.8 × 7 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mrs. Max Beckmann. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann. Carnival Mask, Green, Violet and Pink (Columbine), 1950. Oil on canvas, 53 3/8 × 39 9/16 in. (135.5 × 100.5 cm). Framed: 61 3/8 × 47 3/4 × 1 3/4 in. (155.9 × 121.3 × 4.4 cm). Saint Louis Art Museum, Bequest of Morton D. May. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Max Beckmann in New York is organized by Sabine Rewald, the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Curator for Modern Art in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Images courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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