Max Fahrenkrug

Max Fahrenkrug was part of a wave of German Expressionist printmakers whose work gained popularity in the 1910s and 1920s. The graphic style of the *Brücke* group had incalculable consequences for German art. Expressionist artists often favoured woodcuts. The art dealer Hans Goltz made a spiritual and cultural connection between modern woodcuts and those of medieval artisans. Critics presented the woodcut as a quintessentially German means of expression, historically rooted in the German past. During the hyperinflation in Germany between mid-1922 and November 1923, art became a secure investment. Prints, as a more affordable art form, were accessible to a wider population. Many editions of portfolios, illustrated books, and periodicals were published with a sliding scale of prices, making them affordable to collectors of varying financial means. Printmakers often limit their editions, marking up each of his prints in pencil, usually on the bottom margin, with the edition claim on the left, the title in the middle, and the signature on the right.

It is difficult to assign Max Fahrenkrug to a single style. The art of his era was diverse, and the term "Expressionism" encompassed varied approaches. Some considered Cubism and Futurism as part of Expressionism, broadening the possibilities of modernism. Expressionist artists were united by a love of expression, favouring passion and imagination over scientific or commercial concerns. They sought a purely artistic expression, using form to serve expression. This meant a move away from naturalism and towards a focus on colour and plane. The Expressionist movement saw artists pushing aside obligations to be "correct". Some painted in sharply defined planes, others used a riot of colour. The movement allowed for an astonishing increase in expressive possibilities, releasing the associative values of colour. The goal was to convey the perception of reality with such purity and intensity that the means became persuasive.

Max Fahrenkrug's techniques involved an understanding of materials and their interaction. Technique encompasses the raw materials, tools, and processes used to create art. The artist's 'faktura' is created by human technique, which contrasts with the 'faktura' of nature. Man chooses materials that are constant and unchanging, so they can be subjected to his will and grow in accordance with new laws. The artist's technique also involves resourcefulness, the ability to utilise certain means, foresee effects and a feeling for compatibility. Artists' quality paints are preferable, as lower quality paints lack colour saturation and permanence. Hog hair brushes (filberts and flats) are also used. Grounds include gessoed MDF, primed canvas stuck to MDF, and primed canvas, all of artists’ quality. Canvases are primed and stretched to guarantee the desired quality, and for preparation prior to painting.

Max Fahrenkrug, more widely known as Max Beckmann, was born in Leipzig on 12 February 1884. In 1894, following his father's death, his family relocated to Braunschweig. Beckmann began his art studies in 1900 at the Grossherzogliche Kunstschule in Weimar, where he studied with Carl Frithjof Smith. He made his first trip to Paris from 1903 to 1904, a period during which he began keeping a diary, a practice he maintained throughout his life. By autumn 1904, he had settled in Berlin. In 1915, after being discharged from the German army's medical corps for health reasons, Beckmann moved to Frankfurt. He taught at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt from 1925. When the Nazis took power in 1933, he lost his teaching position and relocated to Berlin. In 1937, after his work was featured in the Nazi's 'degenerate art' exhibition, Beckmann and his wife left Germany for Amsterdam, where they lived until 1947. Later that year, he moved to the United States to teach at Washington University in St. Louis. Max Beckmann died in New York on 27 December 1950.

Works by Max Fahrenkrug can be viewed in a number of museum collections. These include the Brücke Museum and the Nationalgalerie, both in Berlin; the Kunsthalle and Sammlung Bottcherstrasse, both in Bremen; the Ludwig Museum and Wallraf-Richartz Museum, both in Cologne; the Folkwang Museum in Essen; the Gesellschaft Kruppsche Gemaldesammlung, also in Essen; and the Kunsthalle in Hamburg. Other museums that hold his works are the Niedersachsisches Landesmuseum in Hanover; the Stadtische Kunsthalle in Mannheim; the Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen in Munich; the Stiftung Ada und Emil Nolde in Seebüll; and the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal. Additionally, the Bauhaus Archive Design Museum, the Bröhan-Museum (State Museum for Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Functionalism), and the Kunstgewerbe Museum of Decorative Arts, all located in Berlin, may hold pieces by the artist. The MAK Austrian Museum of Applied Art/Contemporary Art in Vienna, the Museum beim Markt (Badisches Landesmuseum) in Karlsruhe, and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg also have relevant collections.

It is difficult to identify specific individuals directly influenced by Max Fahrenkrug. However, some connections can be drawn between his work and later artists. Courbet's seascapes, particularly "The Wave", anticipate the seascapes of German Expressionist Emil Nolde. Nolde's works share compositional energy and thick surfaces with Courbet's, suggesting a visual link. Courbet's impact as a painter registers throughout 20th-century German art. German Expressionism, with artists like Kirchner and Schmidt-Rottluff, favoured the woodcut aesthetic. This included massive forms, flatness, angularity, and summary treatment of form. The "Brücke" group's graphic style had consequences for German art. Kokoschka's prints explored "ugliness" as an expression of spirituality. Beckmann expressed the "spiritual" in his prints. The Berlin painters Fetting, Middendorf, Salome and Zimmer reintroduced the figure. Middendorf's "Big-City Natives" recalls Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon". Fetting's "remake" of van Gogh places him in Berlin. Zimmer's paintings translate abstraction into figuration.

Max Fahrenkrug would have been exposed to a variety of influences. The art that helped to form some artists in their college years included Analytic Cubist work by Braque and Picasso, early Kandinsky, and Miro. Along the edges were Matisse and Mondrian. They studied and analysed the structure of their paintings exhaustively. They looked hard at Matisse's *Blue Window* (1913), Miro's *Person Throwing a Stone at a Bird* (1926), Cezanne's *Card Players* (1890-92), and Mondrian's grid paintings, as well as works by Leger, the Renaissance and Quattrocento artists, Old Masters, American masters, and African art. Lyonel Feininger was inspired by the works of van Gogh and Gauguin, and devoted himself entirely to painting from 1907. Ludwig Meidner studied at the Academie Julian and Academie Cormon in Paris, where he met Amedeo Modigliani. Otto Dix studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule and later at the Kunstakademie in Dresden. Max Beckmann studied with Carl Frithjof Smith at the Grossherzogliche Kunstschule in Weimar. Jacob Steinhardt was a student of Lovis Corinth. George Grosz studied at the Dresden Akademie.

Without more information, it is difficult to provide a detailed biography of Max Fahrenkrug. However, the name appears alongside those of several German artists of the early and mid-20th century. These include Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), who taught at Mills College in Oakland, California, and Black Mountain College in North Carolina after emigrating to the United States in 1936; Ludwig Meidner (1884-1966), a founder of the painting club Die Pathetiker in Berlin; Otto Dix (1891-1969), a founder of the Dresden Secession; Max Beckmann (1884-1950), who taught at the School of Fine Arts at Washington University in St. Louis; Jacob Steinhardt (1887-), a teacher of graphics at the Bezalel Arts and Crafts School in Jerusalem; George Grosz (1893-1959), a member of the Berlin Dada movement; and Max Ernst (1891-1976), who was involved in Surrealist activities in the early 1920s.

Max Fahrenkrug was part of a generation of German Expressionist artists whose work reflected inner agitation through symbolic, gestural language. These artists, including those of the Die Brücke group, influenced German art with their graphic style and woodcut techniques. Their art moved away from minor artistic translations and technical refinements, instead prioritising artistic content. Expressionism sought to express the "spiritual" in material form. Printmaking, especially woodcuts, became a public and popular medium, meant to reach a broad audience. The aim was to create art that served as a confession and an unconditional utterance. Later analysis of German Expressionism has broadened its scope, raising questions about its role in Germany's political and cultural history. Some critics see the new German painting as radical because of its engagement with Germany's past, achieving authenticity and relevance through this connection.