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Max Beckmann

Max Beckmann Quotes

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Famous Max Beckmann Quotes

“Often, very often, I am alone. My studio in Amsterdam, (Beckmann lived in the center of Amsterdam during World War 2.) an enormous old tobacco storeroom is again filled in my imagination with figures from the old days and from the new, like an ocean moved by storm and sun and always present in my thoughts. Then shapes become beings and seem comprehensible to me in the great void and uncertainty of the space which I call god.”

WorldWarSeemsImaginationSpaceSunFiguresShapesOceanMovedFilledStudiosStormEnormousUncertaintyWar Of The WorldsVoidMy ThoughtsMy ImaginationTobaccoWorld War 2Old DaysAmsterdamFilled In
Author:Max Beckmann
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“I have never, God or whatever knows, prostrated myself to be famous, but I would meander through all the sewers of the world, through all degradations and humiliations, in order to paint. I have to do this. Until the last drop every vision that exists in my being must be purged; then it will be a pleasure for me to be rid of this damned torture”

KnowsWorldLastsOrderPleasureVisionPaintTortureHumiliationDegradationSewers
Book:Max Beckmann
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“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.”

WorldTwoWholeMomentsThreeMagicOne ThingObjectsSeekingDimensionsFourthCanvasGlimpse
Book:Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950
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“The individual representation of the object, treated sympathetically or antipathetically, is highly necessary and is an enrichment to the world in form. The elimination of the human relationship causes the vacuum which makes all of us suffer in various degrees - an individual alteration of the details of the object represented is necessary in order to display on the canvas the whole physicals reality.”

WorldHumansWholeRealityFormSufferingOrderIndividualCausesObjectsDegreesDetailsVariousTreatedDisplayCanvasRepresentationVacuumsHuman RelationsHuman RelationshipsEliminationAlterationsEnrichment
Book:Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950
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“Colour, as the strange and magnificent expression of the inscrutable spectrum of Eternity, is beautiful and important to me as a painter; I use it to enrich the canvas and to probe more deeply into the object. Colour also decided, to a certain extent, my spiritual outlook, but it is subordinated to life, and above all, to the treatment of form. Too much emphasis on colour at the expense of form and space would make a double manifestation of itself on the canvas, and this would verge on craft work.”

ImportantUseBeautifulSpiritualFormCertainSpaceToo MuchObjectsStrangeExpressionDecidedEternityPainterCraftsManifestationColourTreatmentExpensesMagnificentCanvasEmphasisOutlookSpectrumVergeInscrutable
Author:Max Beckmann
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“As a painter, cursed or blessed with a terrible and vital sensuousness, I must look for wisdom with my eyes. I repeat, with my eyes, for nothing could be more ridiculous or irrelevant than a 'philosophical conception painted purely intellectually without the terrible fury of the senses grasping each visible form of beauty and ugliness.”

LooksEyeFormTerriblePhilosophicalBlessedRidiculousSensesPainterRepeatsVisibleConceptionIrrelevantUglinessFuryCursedGrasping
Book:Max Beckmann in exile
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“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.”

LittlesArtSometimesCoursesGamesDifficultInterestingOpinionLuxuryArtisticDepressingLuxurious
Book:Self-Portrait in Words: Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950
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“Politics is a subordinate matter; its form of appearance constantly changes depending on the needs of the masses, the same way cocottes adjust to the needs of men by transforming and masking themselves. Because of that it is not fundamental. That is about what endures, what is unique, what is in the stream of illusions - what is eliminated from the workings of the shadows.”

MenWayNeedsMatterFormMassUniqueIllusionShadowFundamentalsEndureAppearanceStreamsTransformingSubordinates
Book:On My Painting - Max Beckmann
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“The world is rather shot to pieces [end of World War II - 1945], but the spectators climb out of their caves and pretend to have again become normal and customary humans who ask each other's pardon instead of eating one another or sucking each other's blood. The entertaining folly of war evaporates, distinguished boredom sits down again on the dignified old overstuffed chairs.. .May I report about myself that I have had a truly grotesque time, brim-full with work, Nazi persecutions, bombs, hunger, and again and again work - in spite of everything [a. o. using his bed sheets as canvas for the new paintings].”

WorldHumansMayWarEndsAsksPiecesBloodBedNormalEatingShotsHungerWar Of The WorldsBoredomFollyBombsReportsSpiteClimbsChairsWorld War IiEntertainingWorld War IAgain And AgainCanvasNaziSheetsPersecutionCavesSpectatorsDistinguishedPardonGrotesqueBed Sheets
Author:Max Beckmann
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“We will enjoy ourselves with the forms that are given us: a human face, a hand, the breast of a woman or the body of a man, a glad or sorrowful expression, the infinite seas, the wild rocks, the melancholy language of the black trees in the snow, the wild strength of spring flowers and the heavy lethargy of a hot summer day when Pan, our old friend, sleeps and the ghosts of midday whisper. This alone is enough to make us forget the grief of the world, or to give it form.”

MenWorldGivingHumansEnoughBodyHandsFacesFormLanguageGivenEnjoyBlackSleepForgetGriefTreeSeaRocksExpressionFlowerSummerSpringInfiniteHotHeavyGladGhostSnowBreastsMelancholyOld FriendsSorrowfulHuman FacesSummer DaysSpring FlowersLethargyHot Summer
Author:Max Beckmann
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