Max Beckmann
Adam and Eve (Adam und Eva)1936, cast after 1950

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Max Beckmann
Germany, also active Netherlands and United States,1884-1950
Title: Adam and Eve (Adam und Eva)
Date Made: 1936, cast after 1950
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 33 1/2 × 13 1/8 × 14 1/2 in. (85.09 × 33.34 × 36.83 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Robert Gore Rifkind
Accession Number: AC1999.16.1
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Adam and Eve, a meditation on sin, free will, and the origins of suffering, reflects Max Beckmann’s interest in biblical subjects as well as the artist’s own threatened circumstances in Nazi Germany. In Beckmann’s depiction, Adam is immobilized by the snake while Eve is curled against his chest, referencing her “birth” from one of Adam’s ribs. Beckmann, dismissed from his teaching post in Frankfurt by the Nazis in 1933, would flee to Amsterdam in 1937. His sculptures, eight in total, were cast in bronze and editioned after the artist’s death in 1950.

Wall label, 2021.
Provenance: The artist (1870-1938). [Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York]. [Washburn Gallery, New York]; sold in 1977 to Robert Gore Rifkind (1928-2019), Beverly Hills; given in 1999 to LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Barlach, Ernst, Elisabeth Laur, and Volker G. Probst. Ernst Barlach: Das Plastische Werk. Güstrow: Ernst-Barlach-Stiftung, 2006.
Copyright: © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Not on view

Artist or Maker: Max Beckmann
Germany, also active Netherlands and United States,1884-1950
Title: Adam and Eve (Adam und Eva)
Date Made: 1936, cast after 1950
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 33 1/2 × 13 1/8 × 14 1/2 in. (85.09 × 33.34 × 36.83 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Robert Gore Rifkind
Accession Number: AC1999.16.1
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: Adam and Eve, a meditation on sin, free will, and the origins of suffering, reflects Max Beckmann’s interest in biblical subjects as well as the artist’s own threatened circumstances in Nazi Germany. In Beckmann’s depiction, Adam is immobilized by the snake while Eve is curled against his chest, referencing her “birth” from one of Adam’s ribs. Beckmann, dismissed from his teaching post in Frankfurt by the Nazis in 1933, would flee to Amsterdam in 1937. His sculptures, eight in total, were cast in bronze and editioned after the artist’s death in 1950.

Wall label, 2021.
Provenance: The artist (1870-1938). [Catherine Viviano Gallery, New York]. [Washburn Gallery, New York]; sold in 1977 to Robert Gore Rifkind (1928-2019), Beverly Hills; given in 1999 to LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Barlach, Ernst, Elisabeth Laur, and Volker G. Probst. Ernst Barlach: Das Plastische Werk. Güstrow: Ernst-Barlach-Stiftung, 2006.