During the War↑
wrote Max Beckmann (1884-1950) from the war front to his wife in 1915. The already renowned painter chose to work as a volunteer nurse and accompany troops to the Eastern front. Then he was transferred to occupied Belgium: “The dreadfully chilled ambience of a conquered city. (…). A savage world.”[2]
Opposition to the War seen as a Catastrophe↑
Far from his initial aesthetic enthusiasm, he quickly became depressed – or rather the victim of traumatic shock – and spent the end of the war in Berlin. He very quickly understood that the war was a catastrophe and he wanted to bear witness by making his work as objective as possible, without judging the enemy. Above all, he drew and carved in his cold and simple style the wounded in hospital, the dead, the morgue and a home front in which crimes began to resemble scenes of war (The Night.) Resurrection, his immense, unfinished painting describes the upheaval, horror and impossibility for humanity to return to normal, to carry on after. The sun is black. It is not surprising that the Nazis classified his work as degenerate. He lived in exile from 1933 until his death and refused to return to Germany after 1945.
Annette Becker, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense
Section Editor: Emmanuelle Cronier
Translator: Jocelyne Serveau
Notes
Selected Bibliography
- Becker, Annette: Arts, in: Winter, Jay (ed.): The Cambridge history of the First World War. Civil society, volume 3, New York 2014: Cambridge University Press.
- Becker, Annette: Voir la Grande Guerre. Un autre récit, 1914-2014, Paris 2014: Armand Colin.
- Reimertz, Stephan: Max Beckmann, Reinbek 2001: Rowohlt-Taschenbuch-Verlag.