Starting from different premises, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Max Beckmann (1884-1950) have independently arrived at individual solutions to major questions of art and their work revolves around similar issues of human existence. However, it has never been possible to compare their works and thus their artistic attitudes and views on a broad basis and within the framework of an exhibition. The Von der Heydt Museum Wuppertal and the Sprengel Museum Hannover have joined forces to make this possible for the first time.
Picasso and Beckmann developed their life's work independently of each other and moved within different networks, they probably never met in person, not even during Beckmann's multiple stays in Paris. However, both artists developed an intensive examination of the image and its possibilities: of the relationship to representationalism and spatiality, of the relationship between figuration and abstraction, and of the renewal and reinterpretation of iconographic traditions. But Picasso and Beckmann also addressed their own lives, their artistic self-image, the political and social conditions of their creative work and contemporary events with vitality and verve.
