Max Beckmann

Max Beckmann was famous for his portraits and self portraits. He started his works in Berlin in the early 1910’s. During this time he was working in an impressionist manner. His main focus was the disaffection of postwar society. He often represented life in his paintings as a theater or circus in tightly compressed compositions. He made a total of 373 prints which were all black and white. I chose this self portrait of Max because it shows how he used only black and white and how his practice of self-representation underlines the significance he placed upon the exploration of the inner self.