Max Beckmann is often looked at one of the most influential German Expressionist of his time, but throughout his life Max Beckmann would prove to be more than just another satirist expressing his outward views of his surrounding world, but would show that he is different from any other German artist of his era. This discussion of Max Beckmann will examine the beginning of his career and his inspirations, then move onto Beckmann’s work during a period where he was considered a degenerate by the Nazi regime, and finish with the true meaning behind much of Beckmann’s work and why his artwork could be, and was, looked at as less expressionistic than most other German artists of his time.

Max Beckmann was born February 12, 1884, in Leipzig, Germany. He began to study art with Carl Frithjof Smith at the Grossherzogliche Kunstschule in Weimar in 1900. He finished at the Grand Ducal Art Academy in 1903 making his first visit to Paris and Italy the following year (Wilkin, 2003). He eventually began his art career in Germany and later became an art teacher in Frankfurt where he was looked at as one of the most important German Artists. After the Nazis came to power in Ge

Back in Germany, Beckmann’s reputation was growing fast and in the early thirties he was becoming the most important German art figure following his 1933 work titled Exile, which ironically was finished the same year in which the Nazis came to power. That same year he was dismissed from his prominent Frankfurt teaching position and was forbidden to exhibit any more of his art (Wilkin, 96). Four years later Hitler put on an exhibit titled Degenerate Art in which ten out of the over six hundred and fifty works on display were that of Beckmann (Wilkin, 2003). Beckmann was finished in Germany, but this would be the beginning of a newly inspired Beckmann. Europe and eventually America would see a new Beckmann with his first piece after his flight titled Birds’ Hell in which many think that he is depicting himself as a sacrificial prisoner in the midst of arms throwing up a Nazi salute (Hughes, 97). Beckmann felt that being displayed and fleeing the country was in a way his sacrifice to keep his artwork alive and that of the German expressionist movement well into the second war. Although Beckmann always claimed political neutrality, he must have been confused on why he was looked at as a degenerate and referred to his self exile and the events that followed as catastrophic collectivism (Furtado, 2003). During the second war Beckmann’s work became even more tortuous and more ambitious in scope than before as we would see more than just merely dark circus figures in masks, but would start seeing more chains and shackles that would start revealing more of Beckmann’s emotions towards the entire political arena (Furtado, 2003). Beckmann once said of his works that, “the sole justification for our existence as artists, superfluous and egotistic as we are, is to confront people with the image of their destiny (Lacayo, 2003).” Much of Beckmann’s post Nazi work would indeed justify his existence as an artist. There was always more behind his artwork than just political or social means; there were his individual purposes for creativity.

rmany, Beckmann was looked at as a degenerate artist and eventually headed for Amsterdam. It was after he was dismissed from teaching and fled Germany for Amsterdam is when Beckmann generated some of his most ambitious and achieved work (Wilkin, 96). Before his departure from Germany, Beckmann had always aspired to be an internationally known artist much like Picasso, Matisse, and Braque. While still in his youthful twenties, Beckmann spent a lot of time in Paris and at the School of Paris trying to pick up more inspirations from his French

Some topics in this essay:
Max Beckmann, Birds’ Hell, School Paris, Furtado Lacayo, Society Beckmann, Karen Wilkin, Self Portrait, Bird’s Hell, Germany Beckmann’s, Park Lacayo, max beckmann, wilkin 2003, german artist, german artists, nazi regime, lacayo 2003, paris society, nazis power, 2003 beckmann, artist eventually,