Exhibitions | Städel Museum

Beckmann

3 December 2025 to 15 March 2026
Exhibition Hall of the Department of Prints and Drawings
Press preview: Tuesday, 2 December 2025, 11 am

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PRESS RELEASE

BECKMANN
3 December 2025 to 15 March 2026
Exhibition Hall of the Department of Prints and Drawings
Press Preview: Tuesday, 2 December 2025, 11.00 am

Max Beckmann created his work in a world marked by crises and upheavals, transforming his experiences of this into a visual language that remains fascinating to this day. The most intimate part of his oeuvre are his drawings: like a diary, they document his artistic development, serving as a medium for observation and for creating imagery. The Städel Museum is now putting these works centre stage and presenting some eighty pieces from all phases of his career—from little-known drawings to outstanding major works. They offer a direct and intense insight into the life and work of Max Beckmann (1884–1950), one of the most important artists of the modern era.

The Städel Museum holds one of the most outstanding Beckmann collections in the world and has been dedicated to collecting, researching and communicating his work for more than a century. In 2021, the museum received a remarkable addition to its holdings in the form of important permanent loans from the collection of Karin and Rüdiger Volhard. This, together with the publication of the three-volume catalogue raisonné of Max Beckmann’s black-and-white drawings by Hirmer Verlag—with which Hedda Finke and Stephan von Wiese have closed one of the last major gaps in research on Beckmann’s drawings—is the occasion for this retrospective exhibition.

The exhibition is based on drawings from the Städel Museum’s own collection, complemented by loans from renowned international museums and private collections, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the British Museum in London, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, the Kupferstichkabinett – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig. Selected paintings and prints also provide insights into Beckmann’s working process and the interplay of different media.

Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum, on the exhibition: “Max Beckmann, the Städel Museum and the city of Frankfurt am Main have been closely linked for over a century. Despite the loss of almost all of the artist’s works in its holdings during the Nazi era, the museum now boasts a Beckmann collection of international standing. With the current exhibition, we are focusing specifically on Beckmann’s drawings for the first time in over forty years. They open up a fascinating cosmos of his work and make his artistic development immediately tangible—not least thanks to the outstanding collaboration with Hedda Finke and Stephan von Wiese, the editors of the three-volume catalogue raisonné of his drawings.”

The curators Regina Freyberger, Head of Prints and Drawings after 1800 at the Städel Museum, Hedda Finke and Stephan von Wiese, authors of the three-volume catalogue raisonné of Beckmann’s drawings, add: “The drawings are a key to Beckmann’s work. Through drawing, he developed his unmistakable visual language, captured what he saw and experienced, shaped his personal worldview and transformed fleeting impressions into multi-layered, meaningful compositions. In the course of his life, he produced more than 1,900 black-and-white drawings in pen, chalk or pencil, not bound in sketchbooks—ranging from quick sketches to autonomous images. The exhibition presents a concentrated and representative selection of these works, which—supplemented by individual colour works, prints and paintings—allow visitors to experience the intensity of Max Beckmann’s drawing.”

Curators: Hedda Finke and Stephan von Wiese (catalogue raisonné of Max Beckmann’s drawings), Regina Freyberger (Head of Prints and Drawings after 1800, Städel Museum)

Sponsored by: Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG, Dagmar-Westberg-Stiftung, Städelscher Museums-Verein e. V.
With additional support from: Franz Dieter und Michaela Kaldewei Kulturstiftung, Dr. Ina Petzschke-Lauermann

Media Partners: Frankfurter Rundschau, arte
Cultural Partner: hr2-kultur

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ASTA GRÖTING. A WOLF, PRIMATES AND A BREATHING CURVE

5 SEPTEMBER 2025 TO 12 APRIL 2026
Collection of Contemporary Art
Press Preview: Friday, 5 September 2025, 9.30 am

Intimate moments and closeness characterize the multifaceted work of the German artist Asta Gröting (b. 1961). Originally and still working as a sculptor, she has expanded her artistic practice to include film and video. She has been one of the most influential figures in contemporary German art since the 1990s. In her work, she renders the invisible visible by focusing on processes that often go unnoticed in everyday life, as well as on interpersonal relationships. From 5 September 2025 to 12 April 2026, the Städel Museum will present a solo exhibition of the artist’s work in its Collection of Contemporary Art, featuring eight works created between 2015 and 2025, including seven video works and one laser projection specially developed for the exhibition. This selection enables visitors to experience the fluid transitions between nature and culture, intimacy and distance, the familiar and the foreign. The videos capture or stage moments from Gröting’s own environment and human existence. Her deliberate manipulation of time lends the works a particular intensity. The films are more than visual representations of our environment: they open up contemplative spaces that encourage reflection on the intricacies of hidden relationships and their dynamics.
Through her work, Gröting shows how art can act as a medium for interpersonal connections by capturing intimate and intense encounters. Her sensitive translation of captivating moments into moving images invites viewers to explore the subtle, often hidden liminal states of existence, and experience the poetry of the moment anew. Highlights of the exhibition include the work Breathing Curve (2025), created especially for the exhibition, and the premiere of her latest video work, Matthias, Helge and Asta (2025), featuring Matthias Brandt, Helge Schneider and Asta Gröting herself as protagonists.

Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum: “Asta Gröting’s films reveal the visual poetry of our everyday lives through precise observation and give space to the hidden. The Städel has owned the sculptural work We, We, We, You, You, I (1994) by the artist since 2019. With this exhibition, we are deliberately placing an emphasis on the artist’s video art. Gröting’s work represents an artistic practice that addresses social and existential issues in a multilayered way. Her video art explores the boundaries between staging and everyday life by developing traditional narrative forms further. It thus ideally complements the profile of the Collection of Contemporary Art at the Städel Museum.”

“In her work, Asta Gröting focuses on things that often escape our attention, such as subtle gestures of everyday life, empty spaces and the relationships between humans and animals. The works on display are based on precise observations, in which the artist shifts meanings and condenses sensations. Gröting’s intense video works focus on the seemingly invisible, as well as on psychological processes, rendering them tangible for viewers. Her concentrated reflections question our communication, our environment, and our perception. Without providing clear answers, she creates an open space for personal feelings,” adds Svenja Grosser, Head of Contemporary Art at the Städel Museum and curator of the exhibition.

Curator: Svenja Grosser (Head of Contemporary Art, Städel Museum)
Project Manager: Gioia Mattner (Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Städel Museum)

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CARL SCHUCH AND FRANCE

24 SEPTEMBER 2025 – 1 FEBRUARY 2026
Exhibition Annex

Carl Schuch (1846–1903) is one of the most fascinating painters of the 19th century. From 24 September, the Städel Museum will present the major autumn exhibition “Carl Schuch and France”, which will take a comprehensive look at his work, as well as at Impressionist and Realist painting. Schuch has long been an insider tip. He is perhaps the best-known “unknown” protagonist of late 19th-century painting. His art is a discovery. As a restless cosmopolitan, he broke away from national attributions early on and devoted himself uncompromisingly to painting. During his lifetime, he was hardly known to the public, but after his death, the art world quickly recognized the quality of his work, before it later fell into oblivion again.

The Städel Museum is bringing together around seventy of Schuch’s paintings in a stimulating dialogue with some fifty important works by French artists, including Paul Cézanne, Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet and Claude Monet. The exhibition focuses on Schuch’s years in Paris, where he experienced his most artistically formative period from 1882 to 1894. Schuch’s painting exudes a quiet yet impressive power. His work is characterized by subtle colour nuances, an extraordinary sensitivity to light and atmosphere, and an intense search for artistic truthfulness. Refusing to be pigeonholed into any particular style, he developed an unmistakable visual language.

This exhibition is more than a tribute. It presents Carl Schuch as an artist who, with his European perspective and unwavering attitude, wrote an independent chapter in art history. Current art technology research deepens our understanding of his working methods and opens up new perspectives on his work. The findings are presented in a clear and comprehensible way in the exhibition. With “Carl Schuch and France”, the Städel Museum invites visitors to embark on a journey of discovery that puts the artistic cosmopolitan and his impressive visual world in the spotlight they deserve.

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Wall texts "Carl Schuch and France"

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EXHIBITION PREVIEW 2025 AND OUTLOOK 2026

A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY TO 19TH-CENTURY FRANKFURT, THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE RETROSPECTIVE DEVOTED TO ANNEGRET SOLTAU, THE DRAUGHTSMAN WERNER TÜBKE, ASTA GRÖTING IN THE CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTION, A MAJOR AUTUMN EXHIBITION ON CARL SCHUCH AND FRENCH MODERNISM, MAX BECKMANN ON PAPER AND, IN THE SPRING OF 2026, MONET ON THE NORMANDY COAST. THE DISCOVERY OF ÉTRETAT

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Press images

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Self-Portrait, 1912
Pencil 235 × 207 mm
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. Hans Kinkel Collection
Photo: Monika Runge

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Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait, 1912

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Evening Street Scene, 1913 (?)
Pen in black and black pastel chalk, washed
252 × 177 mm
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. Hans Kinkel Collection
Photo: Monika Runge

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Max Beckmann, Evening Street Scene, 1913 (?)

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Prof. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, 1915
Pencil
230 × 140 mm
Private collection, Bonn

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Max Beckmann, Prof. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, 1915

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Wounded Soldier with Bandaged Head, 1915
Pencil
151 × 120 mm
Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Mathilde Q. Beckmann Bequest

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Max Beckmann, Wounded Soldier with Bandaged Head, 1915

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Self-Portrait While Drawing, 1915
Pen in black
314 × 241 mm
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Department of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, gift, 1968

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Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait While Drawing, 1915

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Rimini, 1927
Black chalk and pastel
500 × 648 mm
Private collection

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Max Beckmann, Rimini, 1927

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Flooded City, ca. 1928 (?)
Chalk in black, over pencil
581 × 468 mm
Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Mathilde Q. Beckmann Bequest
Photo Scan: Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig

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Max Beckmann, Flooded City, ca. 1928 (?)

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Quappi with Candle, 1928
Black chalk and white gouache
628 x 488 mm
Kunstmuseum Basel, Kupferstichkabinett
Photo: Kunstmuseum Basel

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Max Beckmann, Quappi with Candle, 1928

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
The Murder, 1933
Watercolour and brush in black over black chalk
498 × 455 mm
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, on permanent loan from the Karin & Rüdiger Volhard Collection
Photo: Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

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Max Beckmann, The Murder, 1933

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Faust II, sheet 4
Faust: Our life’s a spectrumsheen of borrowed glory, 1943
Pen in black over pencil
24,6 × 17,4 cm
Federal Republic of Germany and Museum Wiesbaden
On permanent loan to Freies Deutsches Hochstift/ Frankfurter Goethe-Museum

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Max Beckmann, Faust II, sheet 4, Faust: Our life’s a spectrumsheen of borrowed glory, 1943

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Tram Stop, 1945
Pen and black ink over pencil on machine-made wove paper
325 × 355 mm
Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Loan Stichting Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Purchased with the support of Stichting Bevordering van Volkskracht
Photo: Tom Haartsen

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Max Beckmann, Tram Stop, 1945

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Champagne Fantasy (Magnifying Glass), 1945
Pen in black, washed in grey, over pencil
502 × 260 mm
Caroline und Stephen Adler

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Max Beckmann, Champagne Fantasy (Magnifying Glass), 1945

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Rodeo, 1949
Pen and black ink over pencil on machine-made wove paper
603 × 435 mm
Caroline und Stephen Adler
Photo: Max Yawney

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Max Beckmann, Rodeo, 1949

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Self-portrait with Fish, 1949
Brush in ink over charcoal on drawing cardboard
580 × 452 mm
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, Photo: © Hamburger Kunsthalle / bpk © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Photo: Christoph Irrgang

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Max Beckmann, Self-portrait with Fish, 1949

Max Beckmann (1884–1950)
Portrait of Georg Swarzenski, 1950
Charcoal, partially rubbed and erased
590 × 450 mm
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Acquired in 1985 as a gift from Hermann Josef

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Max Beckmann, Portrait of Georg Swarzenski, 1950

Alexander Eiling (Head of Modern Art, Städel Museum), Juliane Betz (Deputy Head of Modern Art, Städel Museum), Neela Struck (Associate Curator, Modern Art, Städel Museum)
Photo: Städel Museum – Norbert Miguletz

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Alexander Eiling, Juliane Betz, Neela Struck