One of the most powerful painters and printmakers of German Expressionism, Beckmann's artistic life was shaped by the horrors he witnessed as a soldier in the First World War. Though he was born into a merchant family, his later work suggests that he felt that feelings did not come easily to those who had too much. During the 1920s he exhibited with the artists of the New Objectivity group, the "Neue Sachlichkeit." Yet where artists like Otto Dix and George Grosz were concerned with the signs of the nightmare from which Germany for so long could not awaken, Beckmann was more interested in the recurring manifestations of the age-old vices of mankind, shown as reaching beyond the particular to the general. After the Nazis took power, Beckmann was fired from his professorship at the State Art University (Städelesches Kunstinstitut) in Frankfurt, having been singled out as a "cultural bolshevik." In 1937 he left Germany and went to the Netherlands, spending the war years in Amsterdam. His work, all of which was condemned by the Nazis as "Degenerate,"has been widely collected and shown in the U.S.

Selected Bibliography: [Max Beckmann], Max Beckmann Retrospektive: Katalog der Zeichnungen, Aquarelle und Druckgraphik, hrsg. von Carla Schulz-Hoffmann und Judith C. Weiss (München: Prestel, 1984); [Max Beckmann], Max Beckmann in exile (NY: Guggenheim Museum, 1996); Hans Belting, Max Beckmann. Die Tradition als Problem in der Kunst der Moderne (München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1984); Friedman W. Fischer, Max Beckmann trans. P. S. Falla (NY: Phaidon, 1973); R. Heller & D. Britt, Max Beckmann: Self-Portrait in Words. Collected Writings & Statements, 1903-1950, ed. & annotated B.C. Buenger; new tr. by B.C. Buenger; (Chicago/London.: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1997); James Hofmaier, Max Beckmann. Catalogue raisonnÈ of his prints. (Bern: Kornfeld, 1990), 2 vols; Karin von Maur, Max Beckmann. Meisterwerke 1907-1950 (Stuttgart: Gerd Hatje, 1994); Musee National d'Art Moderne, Max Beckmann (Paris: Musee National d'Art Moderne, 1968); Peter Selz [with contributions by Harold Joachim and Perry Rathbone], Max Beckmann (NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1964), Peter Selz, Max Beckmann (New York: Abbeville Press, 1996);

Sarika mit Zigarette (Hofmaier 229). Original lithograph on Japon paper measuring 775x491mm, 1922. Edition of 20, signed lower right between right hand and left elbow. Very scarce on this paper. Image size: 614x366mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Lovers (Gallwitz 267). Original lithograph, 1922. Edition unknown: (c. 1000 signed impressions?). Image size: 242x197mm. Price: SOLD

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