Triptych (Max Beckmann)
The triptychs by Max Beckmann provide a unique series of works is in modern art. From 1932 until his death in 1950 a total of ten are triptychs created. Other artists of classical modernism such as Otto Dix or Oskar Kokoschka also used this pictorial form, but none of them made it a focus of their own work.
In chronological order of their creation, the following works are concerned:
- Departure , 1932/33 in Frankfurt am Main and Berlin; Museum of Modern Art, New York,
- Temptation (of Saint Anthony) , 1936/1937, Berlin; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich,
- Acrobats , 1939, Amsterdam; Morten D. May, St. Louis,
- Perseus , 1940/41, Amsterdam; Museum Folkwang, Essen,
- Actor , 1941/42, Amsterdam; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge (USA),
- Carnival , 1942/43, Amsterdam; The University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City (USA),
- Blindekuh , 1944/45, Amsterdam; The Minneapolis Instituts of Arts, Minneapolis (USA),
- The Beginning , 1946/49, Amsterdam, St. Louis; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
- Argonauts , 1949/50, St. Louis; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Amazons or Ballet Rehearsal , 1950 (unfinished), New York; Robert Gore Rifkind Collection, Beverly Hills (USA).
Emergence
Even before the First World War , Max Beckmann was concerned with medieval paintings and he began to incorporate their notion of perspective and structure into his pictures. The pictures The Descent from the Cross from 1917 and Der Eiserne Steg from 1922 are prominent examples of this . From the mid-1920s, now professor at the Städel , he also dealt with European and Asian myths, the influences of which were increasingly reflected in his pictures.
In 1932 he began work on his first triptych, known as Departure from 1938 . It could only be completed in Berlin, as Beckmann had been terminated the professorship at the Städel in 1933. In 1936 he began work on his second triptych, Die Temptation, in Berlin, and it was completed in Amsterdam in 1937 , where he fled with his wife Quappi Beckmann . In exile in Amsterdam, five more triptychs were made by 1947. Another, started in Amsterdam, he completed after moving to the United States. It bears the significant title The Beginning . The Argonauts was the last painting Beckmann worked on. He completed it the day before his death in New York in 1950. The triptych Amazons remained unfinished.
Image motifs and themes
Max Beckmann obtained the imagery for his triptychs mainly from two sources, from classical mythology and the areas of theater, circus and variety. Although he used a Christian pictorial form, Christian motifs rarely appear. Only the full name of the triptych The Temptation of Saint Anthony has an open Christian context. In the picture, Antonius is not shown, only a book with the first words of the Gospel of John indicates a possible Christian background.
Beckmann didn't just retell the ancient myths in his pictures, he put them together in new ways. So he combined different myths for some triptychs to new narratives. In addition, there are figures such as sea monsters and bird men from non-European myths. A many-breasted black figure in temptation is identified with the Indian goddess Kali .
The names of the pictures are also not reliable guides for understanding. Beckmann changed the names several times during the creation. Others were given to the pictures later.
interpretation
Max Beckmann never gave an interpretation of his pictures and thus his triptychs. Rather, he saw it as the observer's task to find one, whereby the feeling conveyed by a picture was more important to him than the story told. When the gallery owner Curt Valentin asked customers for an interpretation for the triptych Departure , Beckmann said it should be sent back to him and added that his pictures bore truths that could not be represented by words. With his pictures he can only speak to people with a “similar metaphysical code”.
Important exhibitions
- The temptation triptych was one of the highlights of the “20th Century German Art” exhibition at the New Burlington Gallery in London in 1938. The exhibition was a reaction to the “ Degenerate Art ” exhibition in Munich in 1937.
- The Städel in Frankfurt am Main succeeded in exhibiting almost all of the triptychs together in 1981. Only the Argonauts were missing; they were shown for the reopening of the museum in 2011 together with Departure and The Beginning (“Beckmann & Amerika”).
- In the exhibition “Max Beckmann: Exile in Amsterdam”, five triptychs were shown together in Amsterdam and then in Munich until January 2008.
- In the center of the exhibition “Max Beckmann. Welttheater ”in the Museum Barberini in 2018 is the triptych“ Actor, 1941/42 ”. The show was previously shown in the Kunsthalle Bremen .
reception
In memory of Max Beckmann, the composer Günter Neubert created the works Triptychon for English horn, viola, double bass and guitar and Triptychon II for English horn, bassoon, viola and guitar, which were performed by the Leipzig Consort and Ensemble Sortisatio .
literature
- Stephan Lackner : Temptation 'by Max Beckmann , New York 1943.
- Stephan Lackner: Max Beckmann - The nine triptychs , Berlin 1965.
- Max Beckmann: The Triptychs in the Städel , Frankfurt am Main 1981.
- Max Beckmann. Exile in Amsterdam , published by the Pinakothek der Moderne, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7757-1837-0 .