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Max Beckmann Quotes (1884-1950)
Poet, Artist, Painter
About Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 28, 1950) was a German painter and print-maker. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s Beckmann was temporarily and wrongly associated with German New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit).
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Max Beckmann quotes.
“Today I wanted to die of weakness and melancholy again.”
“Afternoon with Q. [Quappi, his second wife] on foot, looking for butter and coals – in vain.”
“To me the most important thing [in a picture] is roundness captured in height and breadth. Roundness in the plane, depth in the feeling of the plane.”
“Saw the English [pilots] coming from the sea in huge bands like the bristling hair of Zeus Jupiter. Heard all destroyed in Frankfurt. Sad... (12 April 1944)”
“Even our own cadaver-bones shall not hinder us from standing our ground until the very last, proud and tired in the face of the black wall that surrounds us.”
“At 10 o'clock a Dutch girl came by Lütjens: ! PEACE!
Beckmann's Diary, 4 May 1945, Amsterdam; as cited on: 'Arts in exile'”
“One of my problems is to find the Ego, which has only one form and is immortal – to find it in animals and men, in the heaven and in the hell which together form the world in which we live.”
“Put the picture away or, preferably, send it back to me, dear Valentin. If people cannot understand it is based on their inner engagement with these matters, then there is no point in showing the thing at all.”
“Well - not quite yet - green police [the Germans] still driving around with machine guns, etc. Nevertheless big peace party with warning by Eisenhower. - Walked around in the city [Amsterdam], much drunkenness..”
“Is there to be no getting away from this loathsome vegetative physicality?.. .Utter contempt for the lewd enticements that always lure us back into life's clutches. And when, half-parched, we seek to quench our thirst, the gods laugh us to scorn.”
“Oh I wish that I could paint again. Paint is an instrument without which I cannot survive for any length of time. Whenever I even think of gray, green and white, I am overcome with quivers of lust. Then I wish that this war would end and that I might paint again.”
“It is not the subject which matters but the translation of the subject into the abstraction of the surface by means of painting. Therefore I hardly need to abstract things, for each object is unreal enough already, so unreal that I can only make it real by means of painting.”
“The metaphysics of substance. The strange feeling which comes over us when we sense: this is skin – this is bone – all in a single vision that is completely unearthly. The dreaminess of our existence mixed at the same time with the indescribably sweet illusion of reality.”
“What is important to me in my work is the identity that is hidden behind so-called reality. I search for a bridge from the given present tot the invisible, rather as a famous cabalist once said, 'If you wish to grasp the invisible, penetrate as deeply as possible into the visible'.”
“One thing is sure – we have to transform the three-dimensional world of objects into the two-dimensional world of the canvas.. .To transform three into two dimensions is for me an experience full of magic in which I glimpse for a moment that fourth dimension which my whole being is seeking.”
“It is, of course, a luxury to create art and, on top of this, to insist on expressing one's own artistic opinion. Nothing is more luxurious than this. It is a game and a good game, at least for me; one of the few games which make life, difficult and depressing as it is sometimes, a little more interesting.”
Max Beckmann Quotes by Topic
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Max Beckmann on Abstract art
“My aim is always to get hold of the magic of reality and to transfer this reality in painting – to make the invisible visible through reality.. .What helps me most in this task is the penetration of space. Height, width and depth are the three phenomena which I must transfer into one plane to form the abstract surface of the picture, and thus to protect myself from the infinity of space. My figures come and go, suggested by fortune or misfortune. I try to fix them divested of their apparent accidental quality.”
What Max Beckmann Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Max Beckmann shared regarding contemporaries.
Max Beckmann on Franz Marc
Max Beckmann on William Blake
“..I saw William Blake (in his dream), noble emanation of English genius... ...’Have confidence in your objects,’ he said, 'do not let yourself be intimidated by the horror of the world. Everything is ordered and correct and must fulfill its destiny in order to attain perfection. Seek this path'.. ..I awoke and found myself in Holland in the midst of boundless world turmoil. But my belief in the final release and absolution of all things, whether they please or torment, was newly strengthened.”
Quotes About Max Beckmann
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Max Beckmann from others.
Sister Wendy Beckett on Max Beckmann 2 quotes
“He would had always seen the world as 'chaos' and 'grief' (the mad and violent world he tried to control in paintings like 'The Destruction of Messina' [Beckmann's early painting in 1909] and who relied on his art 'to order this chaos.. ..to give it form' now found himself overwhelmed by formlessness and horror, helpless. [Beckmann was a medic in the first World War] ..After less than a year and a half, he had broken down in mind and body and was invalided out of service [in 1915].”
de:Stephan Lackner on Max Beckmann
“But Beckmann sees no purpose in the suffering he shows; there is no glory for anybody, no compensation.. .Beckmann blames human nature as such, and there seems to be no physical escape from this overwhelming self-accusation. Victims and aggressors alike are cornered. There is no exit.”
Quote of P. F. Schmidt on Max Beckmann
“We live in such a hell, only we are not conscious of it; we have shifted all of the torment and doubt of our situation onto the artist's conscience; as prophet and soothsayer of the times, he carries our burden; he expresses the meaning and insanity of the everyday, which we hold hidden in our hearts.”
About Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 28, 1950) was a German painter and print-maker. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s Beckmann was temporarily and wrongly associated with German New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit).