MAX BECKMANN. THE WATERCOLORS AND PASTELS
3. March - 28. May 2006

Max Beckmann’s outstanding artistic production has been illuminated in numerous important exhibitions in recent decades. It is therefore all the more astonishing that Beckmann has yet to be assessed as a “painter on paper.” The Schirn presents more than a hundred watercolors and pastels, some of which are large formats, that offer the first opportunity to view together essential aspects of works that have been dispersed throughout the world. This major overview, for which the Schirn will publish the first catalogue raisonné of Beckmann’s watercolors, will make it evident how important these works in a technique often described as ephemeral were for the artist. In contrast to the paintings, in which the problems of history and human existence are condensed, his watercolors show humor, legerity, and charming spontaneity, revealing a facet of this great master of modernism that has been little appreciated.

Curator: Mayen Beckmann, Berlin, and Siegfried Gohr, Cologne