Max Beckmann The Family (plate 11) [Die Familie (Blatt 11)] from Hell (Die Hölle) 1919

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 514 The David Geffen Wing

Hell conjures the nightmare of social disintegration and violence that gripped Berlin after the end of World War I. Using fragmented city views, compressed interiors, and contorted bodies to convey chaos and claustrophobia, Beckmann composed each scene like a stage set. “If one comprehends . . . the entire war or even all of life only as a scene in the theater,” he wrote, “everything is much easier to bear.” The artist depicts himself in several prints, including The Family, in which his young son Peter mistakes a grenade for a toy. Other images were based on recent incidents, including the January 1919 arrest and murder of the Communist leader Karl Liebknecht, pictured in the foreground of The Street.

Gallery label from 2023
Medium
One from a portfolio of eleven lithographs (including front cover)
Dimensions
composition (irreg.): 29 15/16 x 18 1/4" (76 x 46.3 cm); sheet: 34 1/16 x 24" (86.5 x 61 cm)
Publisher
J. B. Neumann, Berlin
Printer
C. Naumann's Druckerei, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Edition
75; plus 4 known trial proofs
Credit
Larry Aldrich Fund
Object number
312.1954
Copyright
© 2023 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Department
Drawings and Prints

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New Gallery, New York; to The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1954

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