Max Beckmann

Max Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. He was born in Leipzig in 1884 and studied at the Weimar Academy from 1900 to 1903. He was influenced by Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Symbolism. He served as a medical orderly in World War I and witnessed the horrors of war, which deeply affected his art. He developed a style of expressionism that used distorted forms, vivid colors, and symbolic imagery to convey his emotions and critique the society. He was associated with the New Objectivity movement in the 1920s, which opposed the romanticism of expressionism and aimed to depict the reality of the modern world. He taught at the Frankfurt Art School from 1925 to 1933 and enjoyed success and recognition. However, his fortunes changed with the rise of Nazism, which condemned his art as degenerate and banned it from public display. He was dismissed from his teaching position and fled to Amsterdam in 1937. He lived there until 1947, when he moved to the United States. He taught at Washington University in St. Louis and at the Brooklyn Museum Art School in New York. He died of a heart attack in New York in 1950, shortly after completing his last self-portrait. He is regarded as one of the most important German artists of the 20th century and a master of expressionism. His works are held in many museums and collections around the world.