Curtis_O_Baer_2010

English in this entry was uncharacteristic—perhaps an indication of protracted thought on the event. It is certainly tempting to see, in Birdplay’s volcanic landscape and body of water, some wry traces of this journey. The mountain topography of Birdplay also appears, in abbreviated form, in Rodeo of 1949 , a drawing whose dimensions are the same as those of the present sheet. There is another version of the mountains in the far right panel of the triptych Beginning , 1946 – 49 , a painting whose allegory fuses elements from Beckmann’s childhood and maturity. While the setting of Birdplay belongs to Boulder, 1949 , other elements of the drawing invoke themes that run throughout much of Beckmann’s oeuvre. Birds and birdlike composite figures are frequent symbols: examples include the terrifying butchers in Hell of Birds of 1938 , an important painting from the beginning of Beckmann’s exile; a self-portrait with a bird of 1940 ; the cryptic, half-female warrior in Carnival , a triptych from 42 – 44 ; and the birds in Weather-Vane of 1945 – 46 . In the latter, the flying and alighted birds seem almost to conspire against the mermaid figure—a mermaid who may well be a precursor of Birdplay ’s mythic women. Music and musical performance are also recurring themes for Beckmann. Musical instruments appear in many works, including all the painter’s triptychs and several self-por traits. Indeed, the birds’ musical performance in Birdplay seems key to the primal, visceral character of their encounter with the broadly gesturing women. It is as if the drawing invoked a world where sound and physical gesture, rather than language, are the stuff of expression.