Max Beckmann: The Landscapes
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Individual Artists
Max Beckmann: The Landscapes Details
The landscape paintings of Max Beckmann (1884-1950) are increasingly understood as fundamental to his achievement, equivalent in stature to his portraits but operating as the ground for a very different side of Beckmann's sensibility. His depictions of urban landscapes, lakeside scenes and country lanes are without the implication of allegory found in his portraiture; while they do often serve as records of places visited, they also frequently cite works from art history, and occasionally insert the artist into their narratives via personal effects positioned in the foreground, subtly orienting the scene around a human presence. Some of Beckmann's most haunting paintings fall within this genre, such as his "Moon Landscape" of 1925, in which elongated tubular rolls of cloud overhang the city nocturne, embellishing its mood with abstract unease. With more than 100 color plates, this volume shows Beckmann to have been among modernism's foremost exponents of landscape painting.
Reviews
This has quality production values.Type design, the fonts are very readable...no eye strain.Fr the most part the reproductions are first rate and are favorable to the work. Beckmann's "the harbor at Genoa" is split in the middle by the seam. I bought this book to compare this to a Book I bought in Vienna from the Forum gallery. It is in German. Only Nina Peters is in both books. The KunstForum book has glossy reproductions::Landshaft als Fremde was worth the price. A young woman who worked at Siemans who shared our compartment on the train,told us of the Beckmann show.I was surprised at how many fellow German passengers were into art. Likewise, Mexico.The Forum show I was impressed by Beckman's distortion of the picture plane by diagonals. There is an overlap in both books of compositions.Beckmann's landscapes has made me re-evaluate Beckman's output.His reputation has been dominated by the triptychs, I find an abstract painter in the landscapes. Despite the painting "Harbor at Genoa" being cut by the seam of the book I strongly recommend this book.Most of the pictures match the cover here in quality reproduction. The font is not tiring to the eyes ,although holding the book can prove tiring.If you are a Beckmann fan you will want this book,if a fan, In that case you may have other reproductions of "Harbor in Genoa" I have.The discussion of Landscape as a theme in 20th century art is worthwhile,for me at the moment a hot topic. This was purchased from Amazon.
