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Manifestations of Exile in the Work of Max Beckmann

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Manifestations of Exile in the Work of Max Beckmann Sydney Norton and Lynette Roth Manifestations of Exile in the Work of Max Beckmann Focusing on selected works from the extensive collection of paintings and prints by Max Beckmann at the Saint Louis Art Museum, the following essay addresses moments of intersection between the artist’s oeuvre and the experience of living and working in a foreign country due to political regime change and the aftereffects of war. Section one examines two paintings – The King and Self-Portrait in Blue Jacket – within the context of the series of revisions made to the canvases at various stages of the art- ist’s exile. Section two investigates seven prints from the lithograph portfolio Day and Dream, completed in 1946 while Beckmann was living in Amsterdam. The multiple layers, both literal and metaphorical, that permeate these works offer viewers strik- ing visual traces of the geographical disorientation, shifting historical circumstances, and social influences that informed Max Beckmann’s life and self-perceptions over his thirteen years of self-imposed exile in Amsterdam, St. Louis, and New York. These works point toward a fatalistic internalization of historical circumstance, combined with an ongoing self-reflexive dialogue between the artist and his work.1 In 1937, twenty-eight paintings and a total of 590 artworks by Max Beckmann were systematically removed from German museums as part of the infamous Nazi “degenerate art” campaign. That same year, the painter and his sec- ond wife, Mathilde (“Quappi”) Beckmann, left Germany for Holland never to return. Thanks to the assistance of an array of supporters, Beckmann was able to live and work in Amsterdam in relative safety. The artist saw Amsterdam as an “interim solution”, however, and hoped to immigrate to Paris where he spent extended time in 1938/39.2 Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, followed by the German occupation of Holland in 1940, Beckmann and his wife were forced to remain there until 1947. The scholarship on Beckmann has paid considerable attention to the issue of exile. The most recent attention to the subject came in the form of a major exhibition on the artist’s Amsterdam period hosted jointly by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. In 1996, the Guggenheim Museum Soho held the exhibition Max Beckmann in Exile, which also included work made after Beckmann moved to the United States. 1 Full-color images of artworks in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum referred to in this essay are available for viewing at www.slam.org. Search under the “Collections” heading for Max Beckmann. 2 See Beckmann letter to Stephan Lackner, August 4, 1937. In: Max Beckmann: 3 Bände. Bd. 3. 1938–1950. Ed. by Klaus Gallwitz, Uwe M. Schneede, Stephan von Wiese. Munich: Piper 1996. P. 18. 336 Unlike the wave of refugees who fled Nazi Germany and Austria to the United States in the 1930s and early 1940s, Beckmann came to America in 1947. The artist was invited to fill a temporarily vacant position held by Philip Guston at the School of Fine Arts at Washington University in Saint Louis.3 Many years earlier, even when the artist believed a move to Paris to be imminent, he wrote to his dealer Curt Valentin in New York: “Trotz Paris denke ich ja doch einmal als Amerikaner zu enden”. Beckmann’s 1939 premonition was fulfilled and he spent the last three years of his life in Saint Louis and New York. An extraordinary amount of Beckmann’s oeuvre now resides in collections in the United States. This is due to the “degenerate art” campaign and the sale of large quantities of European modern art outside of Germany. Several major German dealers and collectors of Beckmann’s work, such as J.B. Neumann, Curt Valentin and Stephan Lackner, had also relocated to major American cities during the war. Largely a result of Beckmann’s two-year sojourn in Saint Louis and avid collectors in the area, the Saint Louis Art Museum owns thirty-nine paintings, over four hundred works on paper, a textile, and a bronze sculpture by the artist. Drawing on works from this extensive collection, the following essay will address moments of intersection between the artist’s oeuvre and the experience of living and working in a foreign coun- try due to political regime change or the aftereffects of war. Section one examines two paintings by Beckmann and the series of revisions made to the canvases at various stages of exile. Section two addresses a select number of prints from the lithograph portfolio Day and Dream made in 1946 while the artist was living in Amsterdam. I. The Self-Portraits In the course of his career, Beckmann painted upwards of forty self-portraits.4 The genre of self-portraiture lends itself to autobiographical readings of the art- work as reflective of an artist’s state of mind, of his or her way of seeing experi- ence and the self. In the case of Beckmann, the condition of exile heightens the demand for such interpretation. Art historical readings often hinge, however, on how commentators view the biographical context in question; as a result, individ- ual accounts vary widely. Two self-portraits by the artist in the collection of the 3 Although Beckmann had received prestigious offers for teaching positions in Germany, he turned these down, calling post-war Germany a “vacuum” because many of its artists and art dealers had long since left. 4 Extensive literature exists on the issue of Beckmann and self-portraiture. See, for example, the introductory Peter Selz: Max Beckmann: The Self-Portaits. New York: Rizzoli 1992; Fritz Erpel: Max Beckmann, Leben im Werk: Die Selbstbildnisse. Munich: C.H. Beck 1985; Max Beckmann: Selbstbildnisse. Ed. by Uwe M. Schneede, Carla Schulz-Hoffmann et al. Stuttgart: Gerd Hatje 1993..
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