Max Beckmann was born in Leipzig in 1884. In the environment of the avant-garde of his time Max Beckmann had an effect of a solitaire. While during the beginning of the Modern the art step by step transferred to the complete abstractness, Beckmann entered the artistic tradition and quite consciously referred to the art of the passing 19th century. A recurring motif of his work was a see, which he called as “his friend” in the later interviews. At the beginning he shaped it as a mysterious energetic space of existential experience. At the times of national socialism he turned to the motif of freedom, awakening and escape. In 1910 Beckmann was chosen as the youngest board member of the Berliner Secession. Later his art was proclaimed as “decadent” by the national socialists. Today Beckmann is known as the most famous representative of the German expressionism. His works are presented in many prominent museums of modern and reach the highest prices at the auctions.

The field of graphic arts, that includes artistic representations, which are reproduced by various printing techniques.

Printmaking techniques include woodcuts, copperplate engraving, etching, lithography, serigraphy.

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Heliogravure
Woodcut
Copperplate engraving
Etching
Lithography
Serigraphy (Silk-screen printing)

Artistic movement that replaced the Impressionism in the early 20th century.

Expressionism is the German form of the art revolution in painting, graphics and sculpture, which found its precursor in the works of Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in the late 19th century. The Expressionists tried to advance to the basic elements of painting. With vibrant, unbroken colors in large areas and with the emphasis on line and the resulting targeted suggestive expressiveness they fought against the artistic taste established by bourgeoisie.

The most important representatives of Expressionism were the founders of "Die Brücke" (The Bridge): Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein, Otto Mueller and Franz Marc, August Macke, among others.

Masters of Viennese Expressionism are Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.

The Fauvism is the French form of Expressionism.

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Brücke
Fauvism