Max Beckmann
09 August - 03 October 2011
MAX BECKMANN
Self-portraits in the Graphic Arts
9 August - 3 October, 2011
As part of the 'Cabinet in the Gallery' series, the Kupferstichkabinett
will be presenting Max Beckmann's self-portraits in the graphic arts, on
show in the New National Gallery from 9 August 2011.
With more than 200 works, often existing in various states and all
containing major works, the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett presides over the
major share of the 370 titles that make up Max Beckmann's body of
graphic works. A central motif among them are self-portraits and opaque
self-depictions.
Like no other artist of the modernist period, Beckmann made his own face
and his own figure the object of a process of searching
self-questioning. Whether withdrawn in melancholic self-contemplation or
with a sceptical look and resolute pose, in tragicomic roles as clown
and artist, as bon vivant, gallant or rogue, whether as defiant
provocateur or as the silent observer of unfolding events - in all his
multifarious self-portraits Beckmann does much more than merely hold up a
mirror to himself.
With haunting sharpness Beckmann's self-portraits are nothing less than
snapshots in time that capture his mental state and his actual living
conditions, as shaken by his experience of the war. They reflect his
spiritual highs and lows, evident sense of self-doubt and detachment,
dumbstruck horror and protest, vanity and pride, playfulness and sense
of irony. They also present us with a glimpse of the confident person
who has found his place in society. In his self-portraits, Max Beckmann
confronts us with his quintessential image of humanity at its most
haunting, in which the individual bears chief responsibility for
himself.
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