Munich had been booked for months and considering the lack of interesting exhibitions in Paris, I was counting the weeks and then the days to take-off time. My taxi had been ordered for an early morning departure - although the driver called me to say he was running late, and then a second time to say he was running very late - I panicked, canceled him and called another. It arrived in 5 minutes putting me down at CDG with 45 minutes to spare. I have never been able to travel this way. It causes an inner-stress. I would prefer to have more than an hour in front of me for a departure rather than that rush-rush…..the return trip was as I like it!
Now had I been to Munich? I could not have told you when and by the end of my three days, I’m pretty sure that I had not visited the city before. Here there was the exhibition quarter (which I got to know very well) and the Kunsthalle in the centre of the city which would be my first port of call. There were eight exhibitions to see in 5 major centers. I must have an inner guide when visiting exhibitions. There may be a few wrong turns taken, but in the end, I can even read a map - upside down.
Dix/Beckman - World as Myth (11th April-10th August.)
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| Max Beckmann 1905 |
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| Otto Dix 1912 |
I knew Dix’s war drawings along with some of his paintings and a little of Beckman’s work. I was not prepared for such a confrontation. Anyone who knows their work separately may be as overwhelmed as I was in this:-
Comparison
The exhibition offers a journey from the beginings right through to the late works of these two outstanding, yet very different artists.
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| Otto Dix 1913 |
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| Max Beckmann, Sunny Green Sea, 1905 |
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| Otto Dix, Sunrise, 1913, |
But I’m going to be honest with you, although they are very different, I was quite confused as to who was who after three hours. In the process, it becomes clear just how profoundly both were affected by the extremes of their time.Their graphic works reflect the artists’ first-hand experience of war, yet the witnessed horrors are still manifest in their pictures of post war Germany, peopled with war invalids and prostitutes. In a similarly forceful way, Dix and Beckmann show the people in their own private and professional circles, including well-known personages. Religious themes also recur consistently in their oeuvre. One early example is Beckmann’s famous “Descent from the Cross” . In eleven rooms at the Kunsthalle, grouped by theme, the similarities and distinctions between the two artists are revealed.
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| Otto Dix - The Salon 1922 |
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| Max Beckmann - Hungry 1919 |
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| Otto Dix Shoe CLeaner 1929 |
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| Max Beckmann, Double-Portrait Carneval, 1925 |
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| Max Beckmann, Portrait of Naila, 1934 |
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| Max Beckmann, Falling Man, 1950 |
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| Max Beckmann, The Sculptor’s Dream, 1946/47 |
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| Otto Dix, Christ on the Cross, 1946, |
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| Otto Dix, Stilllife in the Studio, 1924, |
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| Max Beckmann, Descent from the Cross, 1917, |
Given the horrific history of Germany during this period pre and post both wars, it was not to be expected that German art would have much to do with scenarios of sweetness and light. A culture of violence and intolerance was bound to produce an art dominated by violent emotions and a sense of dislocation and loss. How individuals cope with this kind of scenario is difficult to say but the works of both artists are sometimes beyond any form of horror. Those I will not be showing, but examples which I stood up to....
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| Otto Dix, Assault Troops Advance under Gas / 1924 |
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| Max Beckmann, The Way Home, 1919 |
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| Otto Dix - Officer 1917 |
Otto Dix (1891-1969) was only 23 and a student at the School of Art in Dresden when World War I began in 1914. He enlisted in the German Army, believing that there would be a sweeping change in the Germany he knew - little did he know then.
Four years as a machine gunner in the trenches on the French and eastern fronts modified his outlook considerably. But he waited until 1924 to give graphic expression to his feelings and memories in the powerful portfolio of 50 etchings and aquatints titled "Der Krieg" ("War"). This was an introduction to his sketching which I had seem some years ago. His work is a searing condemnation of the terror and destruction that seem inevitable companions to our every day living.
Max Beckmann (1884-1950) was 30 and already an established artist when the war broke out. He joined the German Army and served as a medical orderly in Belgium but was discharged in 1915 after what was reputed to be a breakdown. In 1918, the year the war ended, his portfolio of prints "Die Hölle" ("Hell") was published.
Even at an early stage, both artists attracted a great deal of attention in Munich. It is not known whether the two artists ever came face to face during these cataclysmic years, and yet they moved in the same circles, exhibited their works with the same art dealers and even painted some of the same models. Although Dix and Beckmann have long been considered as the two greatest German artists of their generation, to date their works have never been juxtaposed in such a specific dialogue.
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| Dix 1926: Beckmann1938/39 |
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| Max Beckmann 1907 |
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| Otto Dix 1913 |
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| Max Beckmann -Quappi B. 1926 |
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| Otto Dix - Martha Dix 1923 |
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| Otto Dix 1932 - very small and a Cranach influence |
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| Beckman: Portrait of Dr.G 1929: Dix _ DR Schmidt 1921 |
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| Beckmann - Large lady 1940 |
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| Max Beckmann, Les Artistes with Vegetables,1943 |
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| Otto Dix, Lot and his Daughters, 1939 |
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| Otto Dix, Vanitas, 1932, Mixed Media/Wood |
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| Otto Dix, Woman with Red Hair , 1931 |
As no photos were permitted and most I took from Internet or from the catalogue which I bought. Unfortunately there was only a German edition but the photos are enough to make your blood curdle and also to see details which I hadn’t always seen during the exhibition.
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| Max Beckmann - Large lady 1940 |
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| Max Beckmann, Girl’s Room, 1947, |
For this viewer, anyway, the effect is to close the door on Otto Dix forever. And probably Beckmann too. I wont be but it will be quite a long time before I could see such an exhibition again. Such horror is difficult to take.
I wandered back to the hotel, needing time to reflect on what I had seen. It was lunch time and after having taken possession of my room, I took off for my second experience at the Lenbachhaus. With the « Blue Rider » I knew that my eyes would be full of color.
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