Max Beckmann, Carnival Mask, Green, Violet, and Pink (Columbine) (1950) – New Objectivity
Max Beckmann, Carnival Mask, Green, Violet, and Pink (Columbine) (1950) – New Objectivity
A woman in carnival costume faces the viewer head-on, sitting assertively on a table with legs spread wide and wearing a cat-like mask. Beckmann depicts this woman as a strong and powerful figure who tosses men aside, suggested symbolically by the image of the Jack atop the discarded playing cards in the foreground. Beckmann structures his composition around a pyramid of black, represented by the stockings, outfit, and the mask.
Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s, he was associated with the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit), an outgrowth of Expressionism that opposed its introverted emotionalism. Even when dealing with light subject matter like circus performers, Beckmann often had an undercurrent of moodiness or unease in his works. By the 1930s, his work became more explicit in its horrifying imagery and distorted forms with combination of brutal realism and social criticism, coinciding with the rise of nazism in Germany
Available as a fine art print and as a stretched canvas panel (heavy fine art canvas stretched over 1.5 inch deep edge solid wood frame)
All prints are made using archival art stocks and UV pigment inks to give up to 200 years life. Prints are sold unframed and unmounted.
