1 April 2006 – 18 June 2006

Prof. Dr. Tilman Osterwold, Artistic Director of the Zentrum Paul Klee: Curator
Dr. Cornelia Homburg: Co-curator

The Zentrum Paul Klee begins its programme of exhibitions in 2006 with the monographic presentation «Max Beckmann – Dream of Life». The exhibition, opening in the spring, is being designed and realised exclusively for Bern and the Zentrum Paul Klee. It will contain a selection of some 60 of his works, culled from the collections of well-known museums in Europe and the USA as well as from some private sources.

Max Beckmann is not just one of Paul Klee's most significant contemporaries; he, like Klee, was German, and his oeuvre treats many of the same themes as Klee. Both artists shared a fascination for the theatre and for masks, variety, acrobatics and music, and both explored mythological, psychological and philosophical issues. Yet when it came to dreams and reality and the forms of existence assumed by individuals and societies, the two artists adopted very different approaches: here, Beckmann's particular artistic format and the severity of his style provide an extreme counterpoint to that of Paul Klee.

This exhibition of works by Max Beckmann allows the Zentrum Paul Klee to single out and feature various facets of its Klee collection, as a result of which visitors will be able to participate in a dialogue between two of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by Cornelia Homburg, Anabelle Kienle, Tilman Osterwold, Sean Rainbird, Reinhard Spieler and Barbara Stehlé Akhtar.