Key Works
Woman with Red Hair 1917, THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON, DC, US
Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne 1918, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, US
Young Girl 1918, MUSÉE PICASSO, PARIS, FRANCE
The Young Apprentice 1918, SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK, US
Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne 1918, NORTON SIMON ART FOUNDATION, PASADENA, CA, US
BECKMANN
1884–1950 • EXPRESSIONISM, NEW OBJECTIVITY
Family Picture
1920 OIL ON CANVAS
65.1 × 100.9 CM (25 × 39¾ IN)
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK, US
A wounded man clutches an instrument, holding out his hand for alms. Three stages of life are represented: melancholic youth, despairing old age, and newspaper-reading middle age. A woman titivates, but the young men who might have appreciated her have all died in the war.
Before World War I, avant-garde artists had gathered in Germany. After 1918, more artists in Germany tried to come to terms with the horrors they had experienced.
One of Germany’s leading 20th-century artists, Max Beckmann depicted the world around him with passion. A versatile painter, draftsman, graphic artist, printmaker, sculptor and writer, he was born in Leipzig. At the age of 19, he moved to Paris and became enthused by Gothic painting. The following year, 1904, he settled in Berlin and was awarded a scholarship to study in Florence. Expressionism began to emerge just before 1914, and Beckmann was interested in the ideas of expressing personal emotions through art.
At the outbreak of war, he volunteered for the medical corps, but after a nervous breakdown in 1915, he settled in Frankfurt. He became concerned with truth, the collapse of society and hidden spiritual dimensions. Exploring a variety of genres and subjects, he became linked with the German Expressionist Movement, Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), which reflected the disillusionment of the post-war period, but his style, which blended realism with imagination, was different from others in that group. His narrative paintings warn against vices and depict the poverty, corruption and hopelessness of his era. Further experiences of political upheaval, the rise of Nazism and World War II, affected his style as he tried to express his concerns for the anguish and suffering taking place.
Although influenced by Expressionism and Cubism, Beckmann refused to join any movement or group and he continually responded to new artistic challenges and ideas. Achieving prosperity and public recognition between the wars, under the Nazi regime he was classified as “degenerate” and fled to Amsterdam in 1937 where he worked productively for ten years. After the war, he moved to America for the last three years of his life.
Key Works
The Descent from the Cross 1917, THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK, US
The Night 1918–19, KUNSTSAMMLUNG NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN, DUSSELDORF, GERMANY
The Dream 1921, ST LOUIS ART MUSEUM, MISSOURI, US
Self-Portrait in Tuxedo 1927, BUSCH-REISINGER MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, US
Temptation 1936–7, BAYERISCHE STAATSGEMALDESAMMLUNGEN, MUNICH, GERMANY
RIVERA
1886–1957 • SOCIAL REALISM, MEXICAN MURALISM
The Flowered Canoe
1931 OIL ON CANVAS
200 × 100 CM (78¾ × 39 IN)
MUSEO DOLORES OLMEDO PATIÑO, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
Rivera and the Mexican Muralist Movement inspired US President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) program in depicting scenes of American life on public buildings. This vibrant, naïve-style work was painted by Rivera when he was in America, reflecting his memories of Mexico and demonstrating his love of color and sophisticated compositional techniques.
The most celebrated figure in the revival of Mexican Muralism, Diego Rivera was also an active communist and the husband of artist Frida Kahlo—aspects of his life that became as famous as his contribution to modern art. His powerful social commentary on Mexican events made him a revered and influential artist.
Born in the silver mining town of Guanajuato City, Rivera came from a family descended from Spanish nobility. When he was ten, he began studying art at the Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City, but was expelled six years later for joining a student strike. He won a scholarship to study abroad and traveled to Europe in 1907. In France, he became enthrallled by the work of the Fauves and Cézanne, but was especially taken with the naïve paintings of Henri Rousseau (1844–1910). He also became friends with Modigliani and his circle of avant-garde artists and writers. Picasso and Braque were producing their Cubist works and Rivera embraced some of their new ways of representing the world. After 1917, he became even more influenced by Cézanne and began simplifying his subjects and employing patches of vivid color.
In 1919, Rivera traveled to Italy where he studied Italian Renaissance frescoes. Two years later, he returned to Mexico and was the first of several artists to paint murals as part of an education program. He initially experimented with encaustic and then mastered fresco techniques. His murals reflect issues about Mexican society and the Mexican Revolution of 1910. His style derived from Rousseau, Cubism and native Aztec influences, with large, simplified figures and bold colors. In 1922 he joined the Mexican Communist Party and the following year he began a second cycle of murals. His energy and determination was not always welcomed in his native country, but he attracted increasing attention abroad. In 1927, he was invited to Russia for the tenth anniversary celebrations of the Russian Revolution, but was soon ordered to leave because of his involvement in anti-Soviet politics.
In 1929, Rivera was expelled from the Mexican Communist Party, married Frida Kahlo, and accepted a commission from the US ambassador to Mexico to paint murals in the Palace of Cortez in Cuernavaca. In November 1930, he went to America to begin work on his first two major US commissions: the American Stock Exchange Luncheon Club and the California School of Fine Arts. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his work was organized at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and between 1932 and 1933 he completed 27 fresco panels in Detroit, Michigan. He returned to Mexico in 1933 and visited America for the last time in 1940, to paint a ten-panel mural for the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco.
Key Works
Night of the Rich 1928, NORTH WALL, COURTYARD OF THE FIESTAS, MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
Detroit Industry 1932–3, DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS, DETROIT, MI, US
The Flower Carrier 1935, SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, US
The Flower Vendor 1941, NORTON SIMON MUSEUM, PASADENA, CA, US
A Dream of a Sunday Afternoon in Alameda Park 1947–8, ALAMEDA HOTEL, MEXICO CITY, MEXICO