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property of a new york private collection MAX BECKMANN (1884-1950) Stilleben mit Negerplastik sig...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:850,000.00 - 1,200,000.00 USD
property of a new york private collection MAX BECKMANN (1884-1950) Stilleben mit Negerplastik sig...
property of a new york private collection
MAX BECKMANN
(1884-1950)
Stilleben mit Negerplastik
signed and dated
"Beckmann F.24"(upper left)
oil on canvas
21 3/4 x 18 in. (55 x 45.5 cm)
painted in Frankfurt, 1924
Estimate: $850,000-1,200,000 <p>Provenance
Heinrich Kirchhoff, Wiesbaden (before 1928)
Galerie Günther Franke, Munich (ca. 1945)
Private Collection (acquired from the above in the early 1950s)
Private Collection (by descent from the above; sale: Sotheby's, London, December 8, 1997, lot 34)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner <p>Exhibited
Frankfurt, Kunstverein, Max Beckmann, October 19-November 11, 1924, no. 20
Mannheim, Städtische Kunsthalle, Max Beckmann: das gesammelte Werk, Gemälde, Graphik, Handzeichnungen aus den Jahren 1905 bis 1927, February 19-April 1, 1928, no. 71
Berlin, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Max Beckmann, April 22-May 31, 1928, no. 20
Weisbaden, Neues Museum Nassauischer Kunstverein und Sammlung Kirchhoff, 30 deutsche Kunstler aus unserer Zeit, April 6-June 1, 1929, no. 49
Munich, Galerie Günther Franke, Max Beckmann, June 21-July 20, 1946, no. 75
Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Max Beckmann, June 29-July 27, 1947, no. 12
Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Max Beckmann, February 1949, no. 10
Cologne, Josef-Haubrich Kunsthalle, Max Beckmann zu seinem 100. Geburtstag, April 19-June 24,1984, no. 13 (illustrated) <p>Literature
The Artist's Handlist, Frankfurt, 1924 (as Stilleben mit Neger-plastik begonnen 14. Januar, beendet 5. Februar. Kirchoff)
Benno Reifenberg and Wilhelm Hausenstein, Max Beckmann, Munich, 1949, p. 69, no. 197
Erhard and Barbara Göpel, Max Beckmann, Katalog der Gemälde, Bern, 1976, vol. I, pp. 166-167, no. 225; vol. II, pl. 81 (illustrated)
"I assume, though, that there are two worlds: the world of spiritual life and the world of political reality....What I want to show in my work is the idea which hides itself behind so-called reality. I am seeking for the bridge which leads from the visible to the invisible." (Reprinted from Max Beckmann's original lecture entitled "Meine Theorie in der Malerei," given at the New Burlington Gallery, London July 21, 1938.)
This bridge to the invisible, this search for truth, is a governing tenet of Neue Sachlichkeit, or "new objectivity." The movement, following the brutal years after World War I, was known for its clarity and balance and marked the end of Expressionism. Beckmann was considered one of the leaders of this new realism and Stilleben mit Negerplastik serves as a quintessential example of this important movement. In addition to brilliantly encapsulating the principles of Neue Sachlichkeit, Beckmann's Stilleben mit Neger-plastik offers the viewer a mosaic of contemporary social criticism. In order to understand both the "reality" of Stilleben mit Negerplastik as well as the ideas hiding behind it, one must evaluate the objects carefully chosen by Beckmann. These include the African sculpture, a fan, fruit, and flowers arranged upon a partially obscured copy of the Frankfurter Zeitung newspaper. Both the sculpture and the newspaper are references to Heinrich Simon, a part owner and editor of the paper, and a close friend of Beckmann during his Frankfurt years of 1915-1925. Beckmann completed separate portraits of the Simons and immortalized the editor in a lithograph of 1922. The sculpture was a gift from Simon to Beckmann (Fig. 1). Simon, often called the "King of Frankfurt," ceaselessly championed Beckmann and the arts both personally and through the public voice of the Frankfurter Zeitung.
Thus, the "reality" of the painting appears as a simple collection of objects and an homage to a close friend. Yet the meanings of these objects, and their placements in the picture, clue us into Beckmann's bridge to the invisible. The Frankfurter Zeitung - representing the best qualities of Weimar culture - was a liberal, democratic paper and a champion of the modern arts, yet Beckmann has rendered it almost impossible to see. Perhaps because the work was painted from January 14 to February 5, 1924, only two short months after Hitler and the National Socialists plotted the demise of the democratic government in Berlin with the infamous Beer Hall Putsch. Although a failure, the putsch would certainly have alerted Beckmann to the terrifying rise of extremist groups throughout Germany. By obscuring the title of the paper (a symbol for freedom and humanity), Beckmann hints at the stark reality of the political situation. In addition, Beckmann chooses a fan to obscure the title of the paper. The fan, a familiar motif for Beckmann, is a dynamic object that can either open or close, indicating an unknowable future for liberal thinking in Germany. It is surely no accident that the sculpture, also hiding the paper, is African and "primitive," indicating both art and base animal instinct - a contrast to intellectualism. Stilleben mit Negerplastik is a vitally important indication of Beckmann's genius, specifically his ability to transcend conventional reality and bridge it seamlessly to both invisible ideas and realpolitik.
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