3-079-277 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Sacrificial Meal, 1947. Beckmann's artistic production probes the nature of the human condition. Beginning with the horrors of World War I and a series of crises Beckmann endured personally, his outlook grew increasingly pessimistic. In the early 1930s Beckmann was forced to give up his teaching position by political forces opposed to his modern and confrontational style. By the late 1930s intense persecution forced Beckmann to flee Germany for Amsterdam where he withstood the hardships of World War II. His jarring style enhances the brutal theme of this watercolor the savagery of humans. It is a preliminary study for a painting (Stephen Lackner Collection, Santa Barbara, California) In which the subject Is transformed into one of outright cannibalism. Harsh colors, strafing black lines, and crammed fantastic figures in frenzied spaces are characteristics of Beckmann's style.