17 April 2008 – 21 September 2008

Max Beckmann: 8 Bronzes

Max Beckmann’s (1884 – 1950) achievements as a painter have been on view at the Städel Museum since the 1920s when he served as professor at the Städel School. His pictures came to the gallery “fresh” from the studio with great frequency until the Nazi confiscation campaign destroyed the original ensemble in 1937. In the post-war period, this gap was filled again in part by extensive fundraising campaigns and generous donations.

The spectrum of Beckmann’s works in the Städel today ranges from his first self-portrait of the year 1905, still very impressionist in manner, to Backstage, the painting that was still drying on the easel when the artist died of a heart attack in New York’s Central Park in 1950. Recently, an important bronze has been acquired for the collection: the depiction of a Female Dancer (The Splits). Executed around 1935 during a period of political constraints, this piece measuring 17.5 x 70 x 25 cm reveals Beckmann’s defiant aesthetic as much as it reflects his melancholy interpretations of the great world theatre, his love of vaudeville with its performers and acrobats.

The exhibition is the first in any German museum to show all eight sculptures produced by Beckmann in the course of his artistic career.
Curator: Dr. Sabine Schulze

Address

Städel Museum / Städtische Galerie
Schaumainkai 63
60596 Frankfurt am Main
phone +49 69 605 09 80
http://www.staedelmuseum.de

Opening Hours

Tuesday, Friday-Sunday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m., Wednesday, Thursday 10 a.m. - 9 p.m., closed on Monday.

Description of the Museum

700 years of European history are represented in a collection of 2,700 paintings, 600 sculptures and 100,000 prints and drawings by artists ranging from Dürer, Holbein and Cranach to Rembrandt, Vermeer, Monet, Van Gogh and Cézanne to Matisse and Picasso, Bacon and Baselitz, Serra and Palermo.

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