Evening star., 1962-05-27
BY FRANK GETLEIN
Star Art Critic

is without pictures by such
early eXpresSionists as Max
Slevogt and Paula Moder--
Sohn-Becker.
Even so, as a list Of artists,
the two dozen or so who are
represented do in fact cover
the field we'll. The problem
Is one Of emphasis. Oskar
KokoSchka and Paul Klee,
for example, are seen in two
paintings each; Lionel Fein-
inger-America'S contribu-
ton to the movements
seen in one. There are near
ly so BeckmannS. You can
make a case that Beckmann
was the most important Of
the German expressionists.
Was he that much more i'm
portant than the others?
"A hedlScOVery
More serious Is the limi-
tation to paintings. In a very
special way. German express
sionism had roots in print
making. a fact Of both So
cial and aesthetic Importance.
Compared to both French
painting of the first half of
the century and to Ameri-
can painting now, German
eXpressionism was a highly
communicative art, a char
acteristic closely related to
the print interest of the art
lists. Also, one of the true
"rediscoveries" Of our GEN.
tury was the Germans re-
discovery of the old woodcut
as a source of inspiration.
In Beckmann and in others,
the hard, black line, respon-
sible for so much strength in
the paintings, is a woodcut
device. The absence of prints
means the absence of Ernst
Barlach and Kaethe Kollwitz,
both of whom made endur-
ing contributions to the art
of our time.
These reservations record
ed. the show is an absorbing
one. During the first half,
you survey. in small samples,
the work of many expression
lists. In the second half, you
follow the development and
sustained. mature achieve
ment of Max Beckmann.
He juStifies his dominant
position.
For one thing, Beckmann
duplicated the feat of the
celebrated French able, who,
when asked what he did dur
ing the Revolution, replied,
II survived"
Survived NaZi Nightmare
Beckmann survived more
than the French Revolution.
He survived the last upsurge
Of the Furor Teutonicus, Hit
Ter and the Nazis. The Nazi
attitude toward art was
summed up by Hermann
Goering, who said: when I
hear the word culture I
reach for a revolver"
When the Nazis came to
power, they found their coun-
try possessed Of a flourishing
contemporary art, that of the
expressionists. There was a
lot of reaching for revolvers.
In a few short years the Ger
man government all but
wiped out contemporary Ger
man art. The artists went
into exile or into Jail. Some
were driven to suicide. Very
few were able to go on
painting.
Beckmann did. He fled to
Holland and then to America,
where, teaching in st. Louis,
he became the friend OF the
Morton Mays. Until his death
in 1850, he continued paint
ing and he continued paint
ing the vision that had alb
sorbed him since at least
1909. AS the exhibition
makes clear, that vision was
shared by most of the ex-
presSionist painters. 1t ex-
plains. perhaps. the violence
OF Lne NaZl reacClOn.
Loathesome Creatures
For although the Nazis
managed to kill German ex-
preSsionism, they were them
selves, in a sense, loathesome
creatures from the express
sionist nightmare vision of
German society from before
World War I to the end of
World War II.
The vision Is one Of vio-
lence and nihilism, express
ing itself in disasters, both
man-made and natural, and
in the corrupted relations be-
tween individuals. often
enough the vision dictates the
subject matter. When it
doesn't, it comes through in
the manner, one Of violent