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Beckman. Images of exile
Exhibition October 25, 2018 − January 27, 2019
In the autumn of 2018, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum dedicated monographic exhibitionMax Beckmann - one of the leading German artists of the XX century. Initially, he was close to expressionists and “new objectivity”, but then he developed his own unique and independent pictorial style of a realistic type, but at the same time filled with symbolic resonances.
The exhibition contains more than 50 works, including paintings, lithographs and sculptures, thematically organized in two main sections. The first, smaller, covers the years Beckmann in Germany from the beginning of his career until the First World War, when he received public recognition. But with the coming to power of the National Socialists in the 1930s, the artist was expelled from the Frankfurt School of Painting, where he taught, and was banned from exhibiting in public.
The second, larger part of the exhibition focuses on the years spent in Amsterdam and the USA, where Beckmann lived after fleeing from Germany. This section is based on four metaphors relating to expulsion and understood both literally and existentially. These are the “Masks”, which consider the loss of identity associated with the link; “Electric Babylon”, which represents the modern city as the capital of exile; “Long farewell”, where a parallel is drawn between exile and death; "Sea" as a metaphor of infinity.
The exhibition contains more than 50 works, including paintings, lithographs and sculptures, thematically organized in two main sections. The first, smaller, covers the years Beckmann in Germany from the beginning of his career until the First World War, when he received public recognition. But with the coming to power of the National Socialists in the 1930s, the artist was expelled from the Frankfurt School of Painting, where he taught, and was banned from exhibiting in public.
The second, larger part of the exhibition focuses on the years spent in Amsterdam and the USA, where Beckmann lived after fleeing from Germany. This section is based on four metaphors relating to expulsion and understood both literally and existentially. These are the “Masks”, which consider the loss of identity associated with the link; “Electric Babylon”, which represents the modern city as the capital of exile; “Long farewell”, where a parallel is drawn between exile and death; "Sea" as a metaphor of infinity.
