Max Beckmann: The Still Lifes - Hardcover

3.4

5 ratings by Goodreads

9783791354088: Max Beckmann: The Still Lifes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3791354086 ISBN 13: 9783791354088

Publisher: Prestel USA, 2014

Presenting work from every stage of the versatile artist’s career, this book is the first to focus solely on Max Beckmann’s still lifes. In his still lifes, Max Beckmann juxtaposed vitality with death, permanence with ephemerality. Featuring nearly eighty paintings and watercolors, this volume covers a half-century of the artist's forays into the genre. The still life runs like a golden thread through every stage of his creative life. Images of skulls, dying flowers and extinguished candles populate these masterful works, which draw on the tradition of the Old Masters. At the same time, Beckmann's still lifes are a celebration of color and form, materiality and textures. Skillfully Beckmann plays with various levels of reality and with the inclusion of figures, landscapes or self-portraits into his still lifes he creates fascinating overlaps with other genres. The beautifully reproduced works are luminous on the page, allowing readers to appreciate Beckmann's use of iridescent color and bold lines. Together they provide a unique perspective on Beckmann's development as an artist, as well as a rich exploration into a lesser known aspect of the modern master's oeuvre.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

KARIN SCHICK is head of the Modern Art Department at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. HUBERTUS GASSNER is Director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany.

Review:

"Spellbinding—which is to say I found myself looking at [Beckmann's paintings] longer than most art."

—Our Man in Boston

"Reveals what a master of the genre [Beckmann] was. . . . It's a splendid collection, which includes a few of the quiet, conventional canvases Beckmann did before World War II, and closes with the explosive, wildly inventive masterpieces done shortly before his death."

—Edward Sorel, The New York Times Sunday Book Review

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.