Beckmann self-portrait fetches German record at auction
December 1, 2022
A self-portrait by expressionist artist Max Beckmann painted during World War II sold for €20 million. It set a record price for an art piece in Germany. The Nazis labeled Beckmann's work "degenerative art."
The masterpiece by Max Beckmann was etched during World War II after fleeing World War IIImage: Britta Pedersen/dpa/picture alliance
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The masterpiece "Self-Portrait Yellow-Pink" by Max Beckmann, etched during World War II having fled Nazi Germany, was sold for €20 million ($21 million) on Thursday, setting a new record price for a painting auctioned in Germany, Villa Grisebach auction house said.
The amount was "the highest price that has ever been offered for a painting," auctioneer Markus Krause told the room to applause.
Including fees, taking home the painting will cost the still unknown buyer €23.2 million, according to the Grisebach auction house.
The previous German record had been held by another Beckmann work, "The Egyptian Woman," which went for €4.7 million in 2018.
The overall record price for a Beckmann painting was set in 2017 when "Bird's Hell" — among the artist's most important anti-Nazi statements — sold at Christie's in London in 2017 for 36 million pounds ($46 million at the time).
Max Beckmann's magical world of theater
German painter Max Beckmann was enthusiastic about life on the stage and behind the scenes, often painting acrobats, clowns and actors. Kunsthalle Bremen assembled these works in the exhibition "World Theater" in 2018.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
Death on the stage
Beckmann's triptych, "Actor," illustrates his metaphor of "world theater." The king, who commits suicide on stage, has Beckmann's own facial expressions. It's a grandiose mélange of color, form and noise.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
Boss of the 'Circus Beckmann'
Max Beckmann enjoyed depicting himself as a director and stage hand. He lived for the stage. This is also apparent in his self-portrait from 1921, titled "The Barker."
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
Carnival with Quappi
This picture is a declaration of love. After his divorce, Beckmann married the 20-year-old Mathilde von Kaulbach, known as "Quappi." In 1925, Beckmann was appointed to the Kunstschule of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, where the "Double-Portrait Max Beckmann and Quappi, Carnival" was painted. He wrote to his wife, "Our marriage picture will be beautiful. I always think of you and our picture."
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
Dancer as a symbol of political isolation?
A dancer practices the splits, struggling for balance. In Beckmann's bronze statue, "Dancer," from 1935, art experts see a counter-model of the Nazis' image of the ideal man. Does the work reflect the artistic and political isolation of the artist, whom the Nazis described as "degenerate"?
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017/bpk/Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig
It's showtime!
A leg is lifted high while the music plays and the magician does magic tricks on the stage. Beckmann was enthusiastic about scenes like these. Here, he plays with perspective. Branded by the Nazis as a "degenerate artist," Beckmann fled to Amsterdam in 1937. There, he worked with abstract and figurative elements. This piece was painted in 1942.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
A dangerous dance
Sad clowns, artists, actors and circus folk populate Beckmann's paintings and images. They often seem to walk on the edge of the abyss, like the pair of dancers depicted in this painting, title "Apache Dance." Painted in 1938, it's a commentary on the tense climate in Europe one year before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
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Painted while in exile
Beckmann painted "Yellow-Pink" while in exile in Amsterdam, having fled the Nazis in 1937 when his paintings were branded "degenerative art."
Beckmann worked under adverse circumstances in the Dutch capital for years while waiting for a visa to go to the United States.
In the record-breaking portrait sold on Thursday, Beckmann moved away from his usual dark colors, painting himself wearing yellow.
Indeed, Villa Grisebach mentioned how Beckmann's distant gaze is visible in this portrait, while his meditation-like pose and almost bald head are reminiscent of a Buddhist monk. the auction house highlighted.
The self-portrait was a gift to Beckmann's wife, Mathilde, who kept it until her death in 1986. The painting had been in a private Swiss collection for decades and has not been shown in public since the mid-1990s.
