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Max Beckmann , German, 1844-1950

Title

"Auferstehung" - The Resurrection

Date1918

MediumDrypoint etching on cream Japan paper.

Dimensions

Sheet: 33 × 47.5 cm

Plate: 23.5 × 33.5 cm

Signedlower left: Auferstehung

Credit LinePurchased, 2021

Object numberNGI.2021.114

DescriptionAuferstehung (The Resurrection) is a drypoint etching on cream Japan paper. It is from an edition of 40 on this paper, produced before the plate was coated with steel. The print is sheet 12 from Max Beckmann’s portfolio Gesichter (Faces). This portfolio was published by Verlag der Marées Gesellschaft, R. Piper & Co., Munich, in 1919, with the drystamp (Lugt 5629). The nineteen prints in Beckmann's portfolio Gesichter (Faces) do not present a narrative sequence but instead reveal flashes of life at different moments. Rendered in various sizes and formats and featuring a range of subjects, the images reflect the assorted character of human existence. Throughout the series, Beckmann exaggerated facial features, distorted space, and took full advantage of the scratchy texture of drypoint lines for expressive effect.
As early as 1916, a large-format painting with a comparable motif was created, but it was never completed. This large painting is now in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (Inv.-Nr. 2673). Immediately after his release from military service, Beckmann began this composition in 1916, which was intended to express the 'eerie cry of pain of poor deceived humanity'. In contrast to the portrait version of 1909, however, it now discards all conventions and transports the scene to a bombed and buried city. It is no longer the redeemed who float reverently into a light-flooded sky, but battered and mutilated creatures who crawl out of the cellars and perform an apocalyptic dance of death on the rubble heaps." (Conzen, Ina, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart – Die Sammlung. Meisterwerke vom 14. bis zum 21. Jahrhundert, München / Stuttgart 2008, S. 214, Nr. 149).

ProvenancePrivate Collection, Bavaria (same collector as no. 1) Karl & Faber, Munich, Auction 303, Modern Art (14 July 2021), Lot 720; Purchased, 2021