Max Pechstein

A prolific painter and printmaker, Max Pechstein made a striking debut with a series of vividly colored nudes and landscapes. Initially associated with the notorious Die Brücke group, the artist charted his own course and became a pivotal figure in advancing Expressionism within the international avant-garde.

After the war, Max Pechstein's significant contributions to German art and culture were formally recognized when he was named Honorary Senator at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin.

Biography of Max Pechstein

Hermann Max Pechstein was born into a working-class family in the industrial town of Zwickau, Saxony. His father worked as a foreman at the Kammgarnspinnerei Petrikowsy & Co textile mill, while his mother raised Max and his seven siblings in a small apartment in a tenement block close to the town's train station. The Pechstein family had a strong tradition in manual crafts, including work in textiles and blacksmithing.

The artist attended the local Citizens' School before apprenticing as a decorator from 1896 to 1900. At nineteen, deeply influenced by Vincent van Gogh's paintings, he left Zwickau to study at the Royal Art Academy in Dresden. There, he studied under Otto Gussman, a decorative artist and designer, learning the techniques of stained glass, murals, and mosaics. It was also during this period that Pechstein began experimenting with the woodcut process, a technique that would become central to his work throughout his career.

Pechstein graduated from the Academy with the highest honor, the Saxon State Prize, in 1906. However, his ceiling painting at the Dresden Arts and Crafts Exhibition of that year was criticized for its unnatural colors, prompting the organizers to alter it with a grey paint mixture to tone it down. Despite this intervention, the painting caught the eye of Erich Heckel, co-founder of the newly established Expressionist group Die Brücke (The Bridge), alongside Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Invited by Schmidt-Rottluff to join Die Brücke, Pechstein began exploring other art forms, including lithographs and etchings.

During his early career, Pechstein frequently participated in plein air painting trips to the Moritzburg Lakes outside Dresden with fellow Die Brücke members. There, he experimented with non-naturalistic colors, dynamic textures, and simple lines, drawing inspiration from Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin. In the fall of 1907, after winning the prestigious Dresden Kunstakademie's Rome Prize, Pechstein traveled to Italy, visiting Florence, Ravenna, and Rome, and took part in the first graphic exhibition of the German Association of Artists.

In 1908, while on a brief stay in Paris, Pechstein met the Fauvist painter Kees van Dongen, whom he invited to join Die Brücke. Van Dongen did join the group, though briefly. By 1909, Pechstein had relocated to Berlin, where he received commissions to decorate private residences, including the Villa Peris designed by Mies van der Rohe. He also exhibited his lithographs and paintings with the Berliner Sezession, a group of 65 artists who had seceded from the state-sanctioned academic art standards.

However, in 1910, Pechstein's art was rejected by the Secession's founder, Max Liebermann. Undeterred, Pechstein, alongside fellow Expressionist George Tappert, founded the Neue Sezession (New Secession), with Pechstein serving as its chair. This new group welcomed artists who had been turned away by Liebermann.

The Neue Secession showcased artists from the Dresden Brücke as well as avant-garde figures from Munich who would later form the Der Blaue Reiter group. Pechstein's efforts contributed significantly to bringing German Expressionism to the forefront of European modernism. However, the Neue Secession was short-lived, with its final exhibition held in 1914.

In 1911, Pechstein and Kirchner established the Moderner Unterricht in Malerei-Institut (MUIM-Institut), a short-lived private painting school in Berlin. The same year, Pechstein married Charlotte Kaprolat, with whom he had a son, Frank.

Pechstein's association with Die Brücke came to an end in 1912 when he was formally "expelled" for exhibiting at Herwarth Walden's 1912 Der Sturm exhibition in Berlin. Die Brücke's policy, imposed by Kirchner, allowed members to exhibit only with other Brücke artists. Despite the fruitful collaboration between Pechstein and Die Brücke, differences in their backgrounds became apparent — while Die Brücke's founders were former architecture students, Pechstein had received rigorous formal art training. Consequently, Pechstein was the first member of Die Brücke to gain widespread popularity and recognition. His painting "Young Woman with a Red Parasol" (1910) was pivotal in promoting the work of the Die Brücke group.

Following his departure from Die Brücke and the Neue Secession, Pechstein's art evolved to become more reduced and angular. In 1914, he traveled to the former German colony of Palau in the Pacific with his family. Unfortunately, this endeavor was abruptly halted by the outbreak of the First World War. Most of the island artworks were lost, and Pechstein was taken prisoner by the Japanese. He was released after a year under an "oath of neutrality" and made his way back to Germany, working as a coal trimmer on a steamer, traveling via the USA and Holland.

In 1916, Pechstein was drafted into the German Army and sent to the Western Front, where he fought in the brutal battles of the Somme and Flanders. The traumatic experiences of war had a severe impact on his mental health, resulting in a nervous breakdown. The horrors he encountered inspired a series of paintings and lithographs, including the poignant Self Portrait with Death (1920).

The year 1922 marked a significant turning point for Pechstein. He accepted a professorship at the Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin. During this period, the artist also experienced a shift from socialism to Christianity, which led him to create a notable series of 12 hand-colored woodcuts titled "Das Vater Unser" (The Lord's Prayer).

Separated from his wife, Charlotte, in 1923, Pechstein married Marta Möller, and the couple had a son, Max, in 1926. The artist's career in the academic and artistic spheres of the Weimar Republic continued to flourish, and in 1928, he received the Prussian State Prize and was elected to the exhibition commission of the Academy of Arts.

Max Pechstein's successes during the 1920s were abruptly halted by the rise of the Nazi Party. As scrutiny of modern art and left-wing artists intensified, Pechstein faced severe consequences. In 1933, he was removed from his teaching position and banned from painting or exhibiting his work. The following year, his art was prohibited from being sold in Germany, and in 1937, 326 of his paintings were removed from German museums.

1937 saw the launch of the Entartete Kunst Ausstellung (Degenerate Art Exhibition). This exhibition, which later toured German cities, showcased artworks removed from museums and deemed by Adolf Hitler to "insult German feeling, or destroy or confuse natural form or simply reveal an absence of adequate manual and artistic skill." Sixteen of Pechstein's works were displayed alongside pieces by his former contemporaries and other key figures of the modern movement.

In response to the Degenerate Art exhibition, Pechstein and his family relocated to rural Pomerania, where they remained until the end of the Second World War. During this period, many of his works, including those stored in his Berlin apartment and studio, were destroyed by fire. In the last decade of his life, Pechstein experienced a revival in his art career, securing teaching positions at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin and being honored as an Honorary Senator in 1951. Pechstein passed away at his West Berlin home in 1955.

The Art of Max Pechstein

As an invited member of Die Brücke, Max Pechstein was integral to a radical transformation that connected past art with both present and future expressions. His nudes and landscapes, characterized by jagged angles and bold, flat colors, were a defiant response to the conservative art establishment, ushering German art into the modern era.

Pechstein's seemingly "illiterate" non-naturalistic style, despite his rigorous academic training, reflected the Expressionists' preoccupation with conveying the inner emotions and moods of the artist. This directness in his art also aligned with his socialist beliefs — he famously asserted that "art is not a pastime" but "a duty with respect to the people," a sentiment that guided his involvement with socialist art groups throughout the interwar years.

A prolific printmaker, Pechstein played a crucial role in reinventing the woodcut tradition in German art. Alongside Erich Heckel, he advanced a technique that has become synonymous with German Expressionism, echoing the prints and drawings of Northern Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. Pechstein created over nine hundred lithographs and woodcuts, many in his handcrafted editions, and others commissioned by established Berlin publishers for portfolios and book illustrations.

Influenced by the Fauvist styles of Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin, Pechstein traveled to Palau in the western Pacific, drawing inspiration from local subjects such as nudes, landscapes, and plant life. His self-consciously "exotic" style featured thick contour lines, exuberant brushstrokes, and vibrant, contrasting colors. However, when the Nazis came to power, Pechstein's "primitive" works were condemned and featured in the infamous Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst) exhibition of 1937.

Post-War Artistic Revival: Max Pechstein and the Novembergruppe

After the War, Pechstein, along with Expressionist artist César Klein, helped establish the Socialist Republic group, known as the Novembergruppe (November Group). This name was inspired by the month of the Weimar Revolution in 1918. The group included notable associates such as Käthe Kollwitz, Otto Dix, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Hans Richter, El Lissitzky, George Grosz, Otto Nagel, and Bertolt Brecht, although formal membership was not required.

The Novembergruppe was united by a commitment to advancing a socialist agenda across various fields, including the arts, crafts, architecture, and city planning. In 1919, the group merged with the Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Workers Council for Art) and focused on the reorganization of art schools and advocating for the integration of culture into the everyday lives of working people in the newly established Weimar Republic. According to the Berlinische Galerie of Modern Art, "Between 1919 and 1932 [when it was outlawed by the Nazis in 1933], the Novembergruppe held nearly 40 exhibitions, published books, and organized concerts, readings, parties, and fancy-dress balls. In this way, the association promoted modernist art on many different levels."

Max Pechstein: Artistic Legacy and Historical Context

Max Pechstein was a prolific artist whose extensive body of work included paintings, lithographs, woodcuts, linocuts, and intaglio prints. His life was marked by significant events in twentieth-century German history, including two World Wars, the establishment of the Weimar Republic, National Socialism, and the division of East and West Germany. These tumultuous experiences deeply influenced both his art and his teaching.

Pechstein's greatest legacy is his pivotal role in the rise of German Expressionism, a movement that defined modern art in Germany. The persecution of Expressionist artists by the Nazis has made Pechstein's art a focal point in the broader discourse of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (working through the past) and the cultural and social rehabilitation of Germany after the Second World War.

Beyond his influential role in Die Brücke, Pechstein's impact extended through his leadership in the formation of the Neue Sezession and the Novembergruppe. His posthumously published memoirs, "Max Pechstein: Erinnerungen" (1960), are now recognized as a crucial primary source for understanding both Die Brücke and his significant contributions to German modernism.