Beckmann exhibit opens at museum

Perhaps no other famous painting has such strong ties and historical value at IU than Max Beckmann's "The Hope Family Portrait." On April 2, the painting finally came home to the IU Art Museum where it was first conceived more than half a decade ago. \nThe painting will be on display at the museum's Hexagon Gallery through May 11. Curators recommend that students and faculty alike see it for its strong IU ties and its historical relevance in the art world. All who have an even small interest in modern art should not pass up this remarkable opportunity to see one of the last works of an expressionist master, the museum's curators said. \nThe road from Leipzig, Germany, to Bloomington was a long and hard one for Beckmann. Born in 1894, Beckmann had an early gift of drawing human figures and as a young man studied in Paris. While Beckmann is often grouped together with the German Expressionist movement, his early works were representations of classic mythology and not Expressionist city scenes. \nBeckmann's life dramatically changed as he enlisted in World War I. He suffered a nervous breakdown and was soon discharged. His work after the war remained dark and reflected the horrors of war. Eventually, the artist began to gradually disassociate himself from the war. \nBeckmann began teaching at a school in Frankfurt, Germany, at the urging of friend and composer Bernhard Heiden. About eights years after he took the position, the Nazis came into power, and Hitler included all modern art -- and Beckmann's work -- into the "Degenerate Art Show," which became the most visited art exhibition throughout the 20th century. Fearing for their lives, Beckmann and his wife moved to Amsterdam. \nBy then, many European artists had emigrated to the United States to escape the Nazi occupation. Heiden, who had accepted a position with the IU School of Music, was among them. Heiden was Beckmann's close friend and became instrumental in bringing Beckmann to Indiana.\nThroughout his time in Amsterdam, Beckmann had dreams of coming to America. An art dealer in New York City commissioned him to work on a series of prints, which would become the "Day and Dream" prints, also included in the current exhibit. Graduate Curatorial Assistant Jenny McComas said she saw it as a very necessary addition to the exhibit. \n"One of the reasons that I chose them for the exhibition was because I wanted to examine the stylistic similarities between the works," McComas said. \nAfter the success of those prints, Beckmann was finally able to move to the United States. The artist's old friend Heiden urged Henry Radford Hope, the director of the IU School of Fine Arts, to hire him for a teaching position. But Beckmann politely declined -- he did not want to feel isolated in a small town. However, during his visit to Bloomington, the Hopes commissioned Beckmann to paint a portrait of their family, which was complete less than a year later. Since then, the painting has been privately owned by the Hope family, who has now given the work to the Art Museum. \nNan Brewer, who is in charge of the exhibit, said she could not be more excited about this addition to the museum collections. \n"Even if the painting had nothing to do with IU, it would still be an honor have it in our collection," Brewer said. \nThe museum's curators said this exhibit is a celebration of the Hope family, who had given so much to fine arts at IU. \nJoanna Davis, an administrative assistant at the Art Museum, said she sees the Hopes as a tremendous catalyst for the museum. \n"The IUAM would not exist without the Hope family," Davis said. "Henry Hope was a visionary; this is a fitting tribute to him and his family"