Zitate von Max Beckmann

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Max Beckmann

Geburtstag: 12. Februar 1884
Todesdatum: 28. Dezember 1950

Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann war ein deutscher Maler, Grafiker, Bildhauer, Autor und Hochschullehrer. Beckmann griff die Malerei des ausgehenden 19. Jahrhunderts ebenso auf wie die kunsthistorische Tradition und formte einen figurenstarken Stil, den er ab 1911 der aufkommenden Gegenstandslosigkeit entgegensetzte.

Beckmann war in seiner frühen Zeit Mitglied der Berliner Secession, stilisierte sich dann aber lieber als Einzelgänger. Der Moderne, insbesondere Pablo Picasso und dem Kubismus, setzte er eine eigenwillige Räumlichkeit entgegen. Zudem entwickelte er eine erzählende und mythenschaffende Malerei, insbesondere in zehn Triptychen. Besondere Bedeutung kommt Beckmann als prägnantem Zeichner, Porträtisten und als subtilem Illustrator zu.

Zitate Max Beckmann

„Ich glaube, dass ich alles erreichen werde, was ich will, alles. Nur weiss ich nicht bestimmt, ob ich mich immer darüber freuen werde.“

— Max Beckmann
Frühe Tagebücher, Max Beckmann, 14. August 1903, S. 10; zitiert nach "Max Beckmann - Meisterwerke 1907 - 1950", ed. Karin von Mauer, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart 1994

Über Bücher

„... die unsagbaren Dinge des Lebens festzuhalten...... dieses schaurig zuckende Monstrum von Vitalität in glasklare scharfe Linien und Flächen einzusperren... - Beitrag von 1918 zu 'Schöpherische Konfession', Max Beckmann, in Schriften und Gespräche, S. 22“

— Max Beckmann

Über Leben

„Das Unsichtbare sichtbar zu machen durch die Realität... Entscheidend hilft mir dabei die Durchtastung des Raumes. - Höhe, Breite und Tiefe in die Fläche zu übertragen, so dass aus diesen drei Raumgegebenheiten sich die abstrakte Bildfläche des Raums gestaltet, die mir Sicherheit gibt gegen die Unendlichkeit des Raumes. - Meine Figuren kommen und gehen... Ich aber suche sie festzuhalten in der Entkleidung ihrer scheinbaren Zufälligkeit.“

— Max Beckmann
Londoner Rede von 1938, Max Beckmann, in Schriften und Gespräche, S. 49

Über Ehe

„... denn das ist das einzig Neue, (in der Kunst) was es gibt. Die Gesetze der Kunst sind ewig und unveränderlich, wie das moralische Gesetz in uns.“

— Max Beckmann
Kritik auf Franz Marc in Pan, Heft 17, März 1912; zitiert nach Kat. Bielefeld 1983, S 28ff

Über Gesetze, über kunst

„Was würden wir armen Menschen machen, wenn wir uns nicht immer wieder eine Idee schaffen würden von Vaterland, Liebe, Kunst und Religion, mit der wir das finstere schwarze Loch immer wieder so ein bisschen verdecken können.“

— Max Beckmann
Briefe im Krieg, Max Beckmann

Über Liebe, über menschen, über liebe, über religion,

„Thick rumors of imminent peace are in the air... Big spectacle with six or seven British tanks. In the afternoon, they played war once more at the Palaisplein [near Dam square in Amsterdam center] and at the Rokin [street where Beckmann lived for 8 years, as 'entartete' German artist under German occupation; The Netherlands was liberated by the Allies, 5 May 1945].“

— Max Beckmann
In Max Beckmann, , Bonfini Press Corporation, Naefels, Switzerland, 1983, p. 80

„One thing is sure – we have to transform the three-dimensional world of objects into the two-dimensional world of the canvas... To transform three into two dimensions is for me an experience full of magic in which I glimpse for a moment that fourth dimension which my whole being is seeking.“

— Max Beckmann
p. 16

„Often, very often, I am alone. My studio in Amsterdam, [Beckmann lived and worked in the heart of Amsterdam during World War 2. ] an enormous old tobacco storeroom is again filled in my imagination with figures from the old days and from the new, like an ocean moved by storm and sun and always present in my thoughts. Then shapes become beings and seem comprehensible to me in the great void and uncertainty of the space which I call god.“

— Max Beckmann

„I want to stay here [Amsterdam] for now, then maybe move on to Paris later on. For the interim, Amsterdam is not bad.“

— Max Beckmann
In a letter on 4 August 1937 from Amsterdam, to writer and collector Stephan Lackner; as quoted on [http://kuenste-im-exil.de/ artists in exile]

„The editor of this catalog asked me to make a statement about my work. I don't have much to write:
- Be a child of your age.
- Be naturalistic against your own ego.
- Be matter-of- fact toward your inner visions
- My love is dedicated to the four great masters of masculine mysticism: Mäleskirchener ([church-painters / muralists, Grünewald, Breughel [both famous painters in the late Middle Ages, ed. ] and Van Gogh.“

— Max Beckmann
a catalog-text for his first major graphic show, November 1917; as quoted in Max Beckmann, Stephan Lackner, Bonfini Press Corporation, Naefels, Switzerland, 1983, p. 14

„Saw the English [pilots] coming from the sea in huge bands like the bristling hair of Zeus Jupiter. Heard all destroyed in Frankfurt. Sad... (12 April 1944)“

— Max Beckmann
notes in his diary, 1944, Amsterdam; as quoted on: [http://kuenste-im-exil.de 'Arts in exile']

„Is there to be no getting away from this loathsome vegetative physicality?... Utter contempt for the lewd enticements that always lure us back into life's clutches. And when, half-parched, we seek to quench our thirst, the gods laugh us to scorn.“

— Max Beckmann
Beckmann's Diary-notes, 4 July, 1946, p. 156; as cited in 'Portfolios', Alexander Dückers; in German Expressionist Prints and Drawings - Essays Vol 1.; published by Museum Associates, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California & Prestel-Verlag, Germany, 1986, p. 113 Beckmann himself castigated the folly of supposing that sexual gratification leads to fulfillment.

„A human face, a hand, a woman's breast or a manly body, an expression of conflicting joy and pain, the infinite ocean, savage crags, the melancholy speech of black trees against the snow, the fierce power of spring blossoms and the heavy lethargy of a hot summer noon when our old friend Pan is asleep and the ghost of noon are murmuring – all this is enough to make us forget the sorrows of the world, or to give them form. In any case the determination to give form to things brings with it part of the solution for which you are seeking. The path is hard and the goal can never be reached – but it is a path.“

— Max Beckmann
Beckmann's lecture 'Drei Briefe an eine Malerin' ('Three letters to a Woman-painter'), New York and Boston, Spring 1948; as quoted in Letters of the great artists – from Blake to Pollock, Richard Friedenthal, Thames and Hudson, London, 1963, p. 214

„Well - not quite yet - green police [the Germans] still driving around with machine guns, etc. Nevertheless big peace party with warning by Eisenhower. - Walked around in the city [Amsterdam], much drunkenness..“

— Max Beckmann
Beckmann's Diary in early May 1945, Amsterdam; as cited on: [http://kuenste-im-exil.de 'Arts in exile']

„And then I awoke and yet continued to dream… painting constantly appeared to me as the one and only possible achievement. I thought of my grand old friend Henri Rousseau [French Primitive painter, died in 1910] that Homer in the porter's lodge whose prehistoric dreams have sometimes brought me near the gods. I saluted him in my dream. Near him I saw William Blake, noble emanation of English genius...'Have confidence in your objects,' he said, 'do not let yourself be intimidated by the horror of the world. Everything is ordered and correct and must fulfill its destiny in order to attain perfection. Seek this path'... I awoke and found myself in Holland in the midst of boundless world turmoil. But my belief in the final release and absolution of all things, whether they please or torment, was newly strengthened. Peacefully I laid my head among the pillows... to sleep, and dream, again.“

— Max Beckmann

„Today I wanted to die of weakness and melancholy again.“

— Max Beckmann
Beckman's Diary, 31 March 1943, Amsterdam; as cited on: [http://kuenste-im-exil.de 'Arts in exile']

Zitate von Max Beckmann

Max Beckmann

Zitate Max Beckmann

„Ich glaube, dass ich alles erreichen werde, was ich will, alles. Nur weiss ich nicht bestimmt, ob ich mich immer darüber freuen werde.“

„... die unsagbaren Dinge des Lebens festzuhalten...... dieses schaurig zuckende Monstrum von Vitalität in glasklare scharfe Linien und Flächen einzusperren... - Beitrag von 1918 zu 'Schöpherische Konfession', Max Beckmann, in Schriften und Gespräche, S. 22“

„... denn das ist das einzig Neue, (in der Kunst) was es gibt. Die Gesetze der Kunst sind ewig und unveränderlich, wie das moralische Gesetz in uns.“

„Was würden wir armen Menschen machen, wenn wir uns nicht immer wieder eine Idee schaffen würden von Vaterland, Liebe, Kunst und Religion, mit der wir das finstere schwarze Loch immer wieder so ein bisschen verdecken können.“

„One thing is sure – we have to transform the three-dimensional world of objects into the two-dimensional world of the canvas... To transform three into two dimensions is for me an experience full of magic in which I glimpse for a moment that fourth dimension which my whole being is seeking.“

„I want to stay here [Amsterdam] for now, then maybe move on to Paris later on. For the interim, Amsterdam is not bad.“

„Saw the English [pilots] coming from the sea in huge bands like the bristling hair of Zeus Jupiter. Heard all destroyed in Frankfurt. Sad... (12 April 1944)“

„Is there to be no getting away from this loathsome vegetative physicality?... Utter contempt for the lewd enticements that always lure us back into life's clutches. And when, half-parched, we seek to quench our thirst, the gods laugh us to scorn.“

„Well - not quite yet - green police [the Germans] still driving around with machine guns, etc. Nevertheless big peace party with warning by Eisenhower. - Walked around in the city [Amsterdam], much drunkenness..“

„Today I wanted to die of weakness and melancholy again.“

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