Bar, Brown (Bar, Braun)

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
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Bar, Brown (Bar, Braun)

1944
Paintings
Oil on canvas
35 1/4 × 16 3/4 in. (89.54 × 42.55 cm)
Gift of Robert and Mary M. Looker (M.2013.128)
Modern Art
Currently on public view:
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

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Provenance

The artist (1884-1950); sold in 1944 to Dr....
The artist (1884-1950); sold in 1944 to Dr. Hildebrand Gurlitt (1895-1956), Dresden and Düsseldorf; by inheritance in 1956 to his wife Helene Gurlitt (1895-1968), Düsseldorf and Munich; Estate of Helene Gurlitt, Munich; [sold in 1971 to Galerie Roman Norbert Ketterer, Campione d’Italia]; sold in 1987 to Marvin (1915-2009) and Janet (1920-2013) Fishman, Milwaukee; sold in 2000 to Robert (1922-2021) and Mary M. Looker (1925-); given in 2013 to LACMA.
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Label

Bar, Brown, painted during the dark days of World War II, depicts four figures, two of whom may be the artist himself and his wife, Mathilde “Quappi” von Kaulbach....
Bar, Brown, painted during the dark days of World War II, depicts four figures, two of whom may be the artist himself and his wife, Mathilde “Quappi” von Kaulbach. The claustrophobic composition, further compressed by the painting’s narrow frame, suggests people forced into uncomfortable proximity, like Beckmann’s own exile community marooned in Amsterdam by the Nazi occupation.
Beckmann sold this painting soon after it was finished to the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, who kept it until the end of his life. Gurlitt was a complicated figure; he bought art the Nazis considered “degenerate” from desperate sellers and acquired Nazi-approved works for Hitler’s planned museum in Linz. Beckmann, however, considered Gurlitt fair, and noted that the dealer had promoted his art during difficult times.

Wall label, 2021.
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Bibliography

  • Göpel, Erhard and Barbara Göpel. Katalog und Dokumentation. Vol. 1 of Max Beckmann: Katalog der Gemälde. Bern: Kornfeld & Cie, 1976.

  • Göpel, Erhard and Barbara Göpel. Katalog und Dokumentation. Vol. 1 of Max Beckmann: Katalog der Gemälde. Bern: Kornfeld & Cie, 1976.

  • Göpel, Erhard, and Barbara Göpel. Tafeln und Bibliographie. Vol. 2 of Max Beckmann: Katalog der Gemälde. Bern: Kornfeld & Cie,1976. 

  • Moderne Kunst VII. Lugano: Galerie Roman Norman Ketterer, 1971.

  • Tiedemann, Anja, and Franz Dieter, eds. Max Beckmann: The Paintings. Digital Catalog Raisonné. Ahlen, GE: Franz-Dieter and Michaela Kaldewei Cultural Foundation for the Promotion of Expressionism, 2022. Catalogue raisonné, no. 669. https://www.beckmann-gemaelde.org/669-bar-braun.

  • Gifts from Mary and Robert Looker, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, December 2017. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2017.
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