Max Beckmann: A Retrospective
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Max Beckmann: A Retrospective Details
Language Notes Text: English, German (translation) Read more
Reviews
Three-and-a-half stars. The reproductions are plentiful, large, in color, and extremely good. Five stars in that department. (But how did "Falling Man" manage to get put in upside down? It's "Climbing Man" here.) Most of the essays are well worth reading, particularly the ones by Schulz-Hoffman, Burke, Haxthausen, Lackner, Selz, and Barker.But for many readers, it's the explications of the meanings of particular works, the suggested interpretations, that will be of primary interest, and those are too often like caricatures of the sort of half-baked art analysis that is all too common. It's as if once a commenter has arrived at a theory of the artist, they are blinded by their own ideas and can no longer see what's in front of them. In "Self-Portrait as Clown" what is obviously a slapstick, that standard bit of clown gear, gets identified as a menacing "wooden sword," despite the fact that it does not resemble a sword in any respect whatsoever. "Dance in Baden-Baden," portraying couples dancing the tango, a dance that is meant to involve a good deal of haughty vamping, is a painting that has some obvious satirical intent. But the interpretive notes are hilariously over-wrought, culminating in some nonsense about "masked ball and horror." Oh, please. Such drivel is mildly entertaining as self-satire, but otherwise a waste of space.