MalepartusSheet 7 of the series 'Hell' 1919

Max Beckmann made this drawing, Malepartus, one of the sheets from his series ‘Hell’, using pencil to build up a world of frenetic energy. The energy comes from the lines themselves, hatched and cross-hatched into existence with an urgency that gives the whole piece its anxious atmosphere. Look at the way the figures are crammed together, almost fighting for space within the frame. Then notice the table in the bottom left-hand corner, with the half-empty champagne bottle and discarded glasses, details that give us a sense of the claustrophobia and moral decay of the Weimar Republic. Beckmann, like Grosz and Dix, was interested in the darker side of humanity. You can see a similar interest in Otto Griebel's painting "The International Brigade" painted a few years later, in the way both artists embraced ambiguity and multiple interpretations over fixed or definitive meanings.