Zitate von Max Beckmann
5 0Max 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.
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„... 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
„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
„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
„The individual representation of the object, treated sympathetically or anti-pathetically, is highly necessary and is an enrichment to the world in form. The elimination of the human relationship causes the vacuum which makes all of us suffer in various degrees – an individual alteration of the details of the object represented is necessary in order to display on the canvas the whole physicals reality.“
— Max Beckmann
pp. 17-18
„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
„If one perceives of it all – the entire War or even life as a whole – as a scene in the theater of 'infinity', many things are much easier to bear.“
— Max Beckmann
Beckmann's Diary, 12 September 1940, Amsterdam; as quoted on: 'Arts in exile' http://kuenste-im-exil.de
„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: 'Arts in exile' http://kuenste-im-exil.de
„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 artists in exile http://kuenste-im-exil.de/
„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: 'Arts in exile' http://kuenste-im-exil.de
„.. [war] in itself is one of the manifestations of life, like disease, love, and lust. And just as I follow fear, disease, lust, love, and hate to their utmost limits, well, now I am trying war. It is all life, wonderfully various and rich in inspiration.“
— Max Beckmann
Briefe im Kriege May 1915, p. 67; as quoted 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. 79
„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
„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
