Max Beckmann: Doppelbildnis, Max Beckmann und Quappi (Double portrait, Max Beckmann and Quappi), 1941
Max Beckmann: Doppelbildnis, Max Beckmann und Quappi (Double portrait, Max Beckmann and Quappi), 1941

One of my heroes: Max Beckmann, 1884- 1950. Lived for a while (from 1937 to 1947) in Amsterdam, as a refugee from the Nazis, before emigrating to the USA.

Space as a metaphor for man's struggle to reconcile spiritual freedom and the real world. With recurrent themes like the beach, theatre, circus, family, war. The image full and busy with people, shapes, movements. Sometimes, as a viewer, a Piranesi-like experience of space. With, in his later work, many mythical figures. Often oppressive, theatrical, epic, magnificently overwhelming.