Max Beckmann: The Still Lifes

Karin Schick ist Kuratorin und Leiterin Klassische Moderne an der Hamburger Kunsthalle.Hubertus Gaßner ist Direktor der Hamburger Kunsthalle.
Max Beckmann, 1884 in Leipzig geboren, besuchte von 1899 bis 1903 die Weimarer Akademie. Er lebte in Paris, Genf und Florenz und ab 1907 in Berlin. 1915 zog er nach Frankfurt am Main, dort lehrte er bis 1933 an der Städel-Kunstschule. 1937 emigrierte er nach Holland und übersiedelte 1947 von dort nach New York, wo er 1950 in New York starb.

Presenting work from every stage of the versatile artist's career, this book is the first to focus solely on Max Beckmann's still lifes. In his still lifes, Max Beckmann juxtaposed vitality with death, permanence with ephemerality. Featuring nearly eighty paintings and watercolors, this volume covers a half-century of the artist's forays into the genre. The still life runs like a golden thread through every stage of his creative life. Images of skulls, dying flowers and extinguished candles populate these masterful works, which draw on the tradition of the Old Masters. At the same time, Beckmann's still lifes are a celebration of color and form, materiality and textures. Skillfully Beckmann plays with various levels of reality and with the inclusion of figures, landscapes or self-portraits into his still lifes he creates fascinating overlaps with other genres. The beautifully reproduced works are luminous on the page, allowing readers to appreciate Beckmann's use of iridescent color and bold lines. Together they provide a unique perspective on Beckmann's development as an artist, as well as a rich exploration into a lesser known aspect of the modern master's oeuvre.