Beckmann Sketchbook 7 c. 1914 - 1920

This is Max Beckmann’s Sketchbook 7, made sometime in the first half of the 20th Century, probably using pencils, inks, and whatever else he had to hand. Look at this object: a site of pure possibility! The cover is old, beat up. The corner is dog-eared, the paper is aged, and discolored. I love how the color palette is restrained - almost drab - but it suggests a whole world of activity inside. The neutral blue and tan of the cover become a kind of stage. There’s a beige rectangle floating on the cover, where Beckmann may have wanted to write his name, or the date, or the title - but he never did. It’s like an open question. I think about the private thoughts, raw ideas, and messy notations contained within. It reminds me a bit of Philip Guston’s sketchbooks, which are also full of personal symbols. Sketchbooks like this are a testament to artmaking as a daily practice of experimentation, and that the most interesting things happen in the privacy of the studio, when no one is looking.