Curtis_O_Baer_2010

6. Max Beckmann German, 1884 – 1950

Birdplay (Vogespiel) 1949

Pen and india ink over soft graphite on paper 17 1 ⁄ 2 x 22 3 ⁄ 8 inches ( 44 . 5 x 56 . 7 cm) Signed and dated at lower left: Beckmann Bolder [sic] 49 Titled on verso in German: Vogelspiel

provenance Mrs. Max Beckmann; Collection Curtis O. Baer

exhibitions New York, Buchholz Gallery, Max Beckmann Recent Work , October 18 –November 5 , 1949 , cat. no. 27 ; State University of Iowa, Six Centuries of Master Drawings , 1951 , cat. no. 156 ; Cambridge, 1958 , no. 60 ; Atlanta, 1985 , cat. no. 100 , p. 169 Birdplay belongs to Beckmann’s immensely productive period in the United States ( 1947 – 50 ), the final stage of his life of exile. The rise of the Nazi regime in the 1930 s had eviscerated the culture of the avant-garde, as modernist artists were barred from teaching, exhibiting, or selling their work. Beckmann left for Amsterdam in 1938 , never to return to Germany. In 1947 he accepted an invitation to take up a post at Washington University in St. Louis, and sailed for the United States, his new home. In the summer of 1949 , he taught a class at the Art School at the University of Colorado in Boulder. It is interesting to note that Beckmann was never comfortable with the English language; his wife, Mathilde (“Quappi”) interpreted for him in class. Beckmann was deeply affected by the natural and built environment of the United States, as is evident in paintings depicting Manhattan skyscrapers, the Mississippi Valley, and the Colorado Rockies. Diary entries from Beckmann’s months in Boulder report excursions from into various parts of the Rockies. These include a description of a road trip into an area near Denver. On the itinerary was a mine called Vesuvius: “[a long car trip] to see the old Vesuv and the factory on the lake, and later by the wonderful Valley and the red rocks near Denver. Really enormous and strange, the rocky’s [sic] extraordinary […] all very interesting and strange” (July 17 , 1949 ). It is worth noting that his use of

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