Birdplay

Prints and Drawings

1949

Max Beckmann
German, 1884-1950

Pushed out of Germany in the late 1930s because of his “degenerate” art, Beckmann immigrated to America in 1947. During the summer of 1949 he briefly taught art classes at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Birdplay was one of about 13 drawings he completed during that period. This major work reflects the artist’s lifelong interest in birds and classical literature.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Max Beckmann
Title: Birdplay
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1949
Medium: Pen and black ink, with scraping, over charcoal, on cream laid paper
Inscriptions: Signed and dated, lower left: "Beckmann Boulder 49"; inscribed verso: "Vogelspiel"
Dimensions: 45.2 × 60.2 cm (17 13/16 × 23 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Margaret Fisher Endowment Fund
Reference Number: 2010.291
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Stephan Lackner, Max Beckmann (New York, 1977), p. 71, fig. 88.

New York, Buchholz Gallery, “Max Beckmann: Recent Work,” October 18-November 5, 1949, n.p., cat. 27 (ill.).
Iowa City, University of Iowa, “Six Centuries of Master Drawings,” 1951, cat. 156.
Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, “Drawings from the Collection of Curtis O. Baer,” January 11-February 25, 1958, pp. 72-74, cat. 60 (ill.).
Atlanta, High Museum of Art, “Master Drawings from Titian to Picasso: The Curtis O. Baer Collection,” May 31-August 24, 1986,p. 169, cat. 100 (ill.); traveled to Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, July 28-October 6, 1985; Indianapolis Museum of Art, January 14-March 2, 1986; Sarasota, Fla., John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, March 27-May 11, 1986; Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, September 17-November 2, 1986; and Frederick Wight Gallery, University of California at Los Angeles, November 30, 1986-January 11, 1987.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Master Drawings Unveiled: 25 Years of Major Acquisitions,” August 27, 2016–January 29, 2017, no cat.

Mrs. Max Beckmann. Curtis O. Baer, by 1958; by descent to Kathi Baer, New Rochelle, N.Y., by 1977. Sold by Jill Newhouse, New York, to the Art Institute, 2010.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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