Max Beckmann at the Berlinische Galerie

Rachel Spence | ft.com | 15th January 2016

The turbulence of twentieth century Germany hugely influenced Max Beckman. The traumas of the first World War gave him a gloomy outlook and seemingly drained bright colours from his work. He tried to capture Berlin’s collective unconscious – “ jagged puzzles of men and women — in coffee-houses, strip clubs … who appear both suffocated by proximity and yet oblivious to each other’s presence.”