The catalogue to an exhibition of Beckmann's work presented at the Guggenheim Museum SoHo - the first at an American museum in over a decade - this book explores, in essays and full-color reproductions, the artist's fruitful years in exile. Barbara Stehle-Akhtar discusses the critical reception of Beckmann's work in the United States and its stylistic development during this period. Reinhard Spieler's essay probes Beckmann's nine completed triptychs, his sweeping masterpieces that express both the mood of the times and the artist's own worldview. Fellow emigre Stephan Lackner provides a reminiscence of his friendship with and support of Beckmann. Completing the volume are a personal interpretation by contemporary artist Eric Fischl of Beckmann's first triptych, Departure, as well as writings by Beckmann that eloquently convey his thoughts on aesthetics and creativity.

Max Beckmann in Exile

Arts & Photography

Fischl, Eric

Spieler, Reinhard

Stehle-Akhtar, Barbara

Individual Artists

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Gegen Jede Vernunft, Surrealismus paris-Prag.

Barbara Auer

Chr. Belser AG Fur Verlagsgeschafte & Co. KG

Description: "Art serves understanding, not entertainment," reads one of Max Beckmann's dictums. Beckmann's oeuvre, widely acknowledged to be some of the most significant German art of the twentieth century, contains a wealth of existential and contemporary historical convictions and questions. This representative selection of some 60 figurative paintings done between 1917 and the artist's death in 1950 unfolds the entire panorama of his career, from violent works reflecting the shock of war to pieces from his later years in New York, from the Cubism and Expressionism of his youth to the Symbolism of his later age. The Dream of Life sheds new light on the development of Beckmann's techniques, ideas and central themes: cabaret, music, the world of the theater, dreams and reality, sensual settings and the role of the female muse, as well as his unusual use of romantic visual motifs in landscapes and urban contexts. The authors focus on conceptual aspects of Beckmann's work which have heretofore been neglected.

Max Beckmann: Dream of Life

Homburg, Cornelia

History & Criticism

Hatje Cantz Publishers

Sean Scully has been described by Arthur Danto as "belong[ing] on the shortest of short lists of the major painters of our time." This book features insights on Scully's art from his friend Bono to his former student Ai Weiwei and novelist Colm Tóibín. This volume is conceived for the artist's 70th birthday.

Sean Scully: Bricklayer of the Soul: Reflections in Celebration

BONO

Hatje Cantz

Beckmann

After a phase in which his art dealt mainly with biblical, historical and allegorical subjects, Beckmann painted pictures showing humanity "in extremis", both physical and spiritual. This book analyzes the thematic complexes in Beckmann's visual world and traces the myths of the man and the art.

Taschen America, LLC

Max Beckmann, 1884-1950: Der Weg zum Mythos (German Edition)

Reference

Foreign Language Study & Reference

B. Taschen

Max Beckmann 1884-1950: The Path to Myth

Beckmann: 25 Jahre TASCHEN

Taschen Deutschland GmbH+

The existential expressionist: Painting the struggle of mind vs. matter Max Beckmann (1884-1950) found his central theme in the loneliness of the twentieth century man, threatened by catastrophe and torn between materialism and freedom of mind and spirit. His early pictures showed the influence of Impressionism, with a preponderance of biblical, historical, and allegorical themes. World War I made a deep impression on him: somewhere between Expressionism and Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), the succinct forms and hard contours in his memorable paintings and graphic works showed man at the limit of physical and mental endurance. Later, the harshness and severity of his style softened and his colors became more radiant, but the monumentality remained. Theater, circus, and music hall became parables of human existence. Beckmann’s work is concerned with the fundamental conditions of human existence and the tragic entanglement of the human being dependant on the whims of gods, sexuality, and society. His relentless search for knowledge, his uncompromising commitment to the picture, and his belief in the power of its form and color give his work its distinctive, fascinating character, and have earned him a high-ranking place among the artists of the twentieth century. This monograph features more than 180 images of works from 1907 to 1950, including many of Beckmann’s famous self-portraits and triptychs (such as Temptation of 1936/1937). Biographical essays cover his war years, the twenties in Frankfurt, his exile years in Amsterdam, and his emigration to the United States where he died; additional material includes photographs on which many of his paintings are based, several exhibition shots, and images from other artists as Pablo Picasso, Eugène Delacroix, Max Ernst, and Edvard Munch that visualize Beckmann’s inspirations and context.

Taschen

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