Max Beckmann Distinguished Visitorship - Villa Grisebach

On the significance of America in the life and work
of Max Beckmann – and why it makes sense
to name the American Academy’s
Distinguished Visitorship after him
By Mayen Beckmann
A young man caught in the narrow confines of bourgeois
society in the Wilhelminian era, at odds with the expectations
of his strict protestant school, built on the principle of
obedience, in conflict with his overtaxed, newly widowed
mother and a stern guardian. Where do his dreams wander
as he reads The Leatherstocking Tales? Toward America!
He dreams of shipping off as a sailor or stowaway. It doesn’t
matter how – he just has to escape from narrow, stifling
Germany.
This is Max Beckmann’s first America: a continent of longing.
In the early 1920s, this dream returns. He has become a
major artist, and his Berlin art dealer, the entrepreneurialminded
J.B. Neumann, wants to expand. Neumann thinks
big, and New York, in his mind, rather than Paris, is the
launch-pad from which his artist’s career and his own
business can take flight. But Beckmann puts on the brakes.
Not yet. His sights are still on Paris. He wants to conquer that
fortress of contemporary art first, is seeking a reckoning with
the great modern artists, Picasso and Matisse. Despite this,
J.B. Neumann presents the first exhibition of Beckmann’s
work in New York in 1927. In 1929, Beckmann wins the
Carnegie Prize for his 1928 painting, “Die Loge” (The Loge)
and the Art Institute in Chicago acquires his “Stilleben
mit umgestürzten Kerzen” (Still Life with Fallen Candles).
In 1935 the Museum of Modern Art in New York buys
his “Familienbildnis” (Family Portrait) (1920) and in 1939,
Beckmann wins first prize in the European Art in
American Collections section at the Golden Gate International
Exposition.
This is Beckmann’s second America: a place of recognition.
The seizure of power by the National Socialists puts an end
to his nascent attempt to establish himself in Paris, and his
dreams of life in the wider world end on Graf-Spee-Strasse
in Berlin. The artist retreats to private life in the metropolis,
10
Korr
hoping to survive the madness gripping the nation and be left
in peace. One by one, however, his friends emigrate to the
United States: Kurt Valentin, Hanns Swarzenski, Valentiner,
Schniewind, Otto Kallir, Mies van der Rohe, Stefan Lackner,
J.B. Neumann.
In 1937, after Hitler’s speech on German art and the
opening of the “Entartete Kunst” exhibit in Munich showing
“degenerate art”, Beckmann also leaves Germany. He has
recognized that his attempt to live a right life in the wrong
one is doomed to failure. The Beckmanns’ first move is to
the Netherlands, but even in Amsterdam, they know their
final destination is the United States.
But in 1940, when his friends have organized a summer
teaching position for him in Chicago, the US Consul in Den
Haag denies his visa application on the grounds that
the US would probably enter the war soon, meaning the
Beckmanns would not be able to return to Europe. Shortly
thereafter, the gates slam shut. The German army invades
Holland, ushering in a grim period in the painter’s life.
Beckmann and his wife Quappi face five years of isolation,
their lives and livelihoods under constant threat. For
two further years, they exist as enemy aliens, without
passports. Beckmann will create over 200 works during these
dark years, including important graphic cycles. He also begins
learning English in the Netherlands. He still believes his dream
can come true once the nightmare is over.
As soon as the war is over, his old friends try to finally find
a way for Beckmann to enter the country he longs for. The
first among them to make contact is the Berlin dealer Curt
Valentin formerly of the Galerie Flechtheim and currently with
the Galerie Buchholz in New York. Valentin pulls together an
exhibition in incredibly short order. Dozens of paintings are
removed from their stretcher frames, rolled up, and cleared
for transport to New York, despite enormous bureaucratic
difficulties. The exhibition is a huge success, but the painter