Max Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement.
In the 1920s, he was associated with the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit), an outgrowth of Expressionism that opposed its introverted emotionalism
In 1900, he began his painting studies in Weimar. Four years later, he settled in Berlin and married Minna Tube in 1906. In 1894, he lost his father, and shortly before his marriage (September 1906), he also lost his mother, marrying just a month after her death. During World War I, he served as a medical volunteer, initially on the Eastern Prussian Front (1914), later in Flanders and Strasbourg (1915), where he suffered a mental collapse. He relocated from Berlin to Frankfurt and became a professor at the Städelschule. In 1925, he divorced Minna and married singer Mathilde von Kaulbach, the third daughter of painter Friedrich August Sigmund von Kaulbach and violinist Frida Schytte. By the late 1920s, Beckmann achieved great success, held a prestigious professorship, and received significant publications about his work. In 1933, the Nazis stripped him of his position and imposed an exhibition ban. Beckmann subsequently returned from Frankfurt to Berlin. In 1937, his work was featured in the infamous 'Degenerate Art' exhibition (Entartete Kunst).
He fled Germany in 1937 and settled in Amsterdam (1937-1947). His studio was located at Rokin 85. In Amsterdam, he did not gain much recognition but remained highly productive. He completed 280 paintings in the city, roughly one-third of his total oeuvre, including the triptychs Acrobats (1939), Perseus (1941), Actors (1942), and Carnival (1943).
In 1947, he moved to the United States. His reputation preceded him, and he received a warm welcome. From September 1947 to June 1949, he taught at Washington University in St. Louis. However, he did not hold a permanent position there, and after his second year in St. Louis, he had the opportunity to teach at the Brooklyn Academy Museum School for the coming fall semester. After his second year in St. Louis, he taught during the summer at the University of Colorado at Boulder. After a year in New York, he taught at Mills College in Oakland, CA, in the summer of 1950. In between, in the summer of 1948, he returned to Amsterdam to change visas (likely to permanent status) and arrange the transfer of his belongings.
Beckmann achieved rapid success, but it was his wartime experiences that left a lasting impact on him. From 1915-16, his colors became more vibrant, his lines thicker, and his subjects more grotesque. Carnival (1920), Beautiful, a Park in Frankfurt (1921), and The Dream (1921) are just a few transitional works leading to masterpieces like the renowned triptychs Departure (1932-33), Acrobats (1939), and The Argonauts (1949-50).
In 1950, he won the Prix Conte-Volpi at the Venice Biennale. That same year, he received an honorary doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis.
