Beckmann, Max

German expressionist painter and graphic artist. He was influenced both by medieval art and by the Neue Sachlichkeit movement and after World War I his art concentrated on themes of cruelty in human society, as in Night (1918–19; Kunstsammlung Nardrheim-Westfalen, Düsseldorf).

Beckmann was born in Leipzig. He fought in World War I and was discharged following a breakdown, reflected in the agony of his work. Denounced by the Nazi regime (see Degenerate Art), he moved to Amsterdam where he began a series of complex allegorical works. He spent the last three years of his life in the USA.