The Max Beckmann Archive in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Barer Straße at TheresienstraßeBayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Fotoabteilung © Max Beckmann Archiv

The Max Beckmann Archive is dedicated to one of the most important German artists of the 20th century, who was also among the most important German painters in exile. Max Beckmann spent thirteen years of his roughly fifty-year creative life in exile from 1937 until his death in 1950, including ten years in Amsterdam and his final years in the USA. Consequently, exile is a main focus of the archive. This pertains not only to materials concerning Beckmann himself, but also to those involving his immediate and wider circle of friends and acquaintances.

The archive is part of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen [Bavarian State Painting Collections]. It is located in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich, but is overseen by the "Freunde des Max Beckmann Archivs e. V.". A large share of the holdings is owned by the "Freunde des Max Beckmann Archivs e. V." Other parts belong to the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München, and the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung.

The archive is a repository for autographs, typescripts, special literature, photographs and films, all of which are continually supplemented, and it includes approximately 300 autographs from the artist and about 1,000 from his wife Quappi, exceedingly extensive materials on Beckmann’s collector Stephan Lackner, who was also an exile, and also approximately 1,000 letters from artists and others that were sent to the Frankfurt collector Carl Hagemann.

Apart from the aforementioned items, the archive also possesses larger and smaller groups of letters as well as individual ones that are each of interest on their own. A selection of those that fall under the topic of “exile” are presented here. But to the greatest extent possible, the rich holdings in their totality are also made known through publications and exhibitions. This goal is served in particular by the journal series Hefte des Max Beckmann Archivs, whose 13th issue has been published to date.

The "Freunde des Max Beckmann Archivs e. V." and the archive it maintains, however, also take the opportunity to cooperate with other institutions, as in the exhibition on Stephan Lackner, which was also seen in 2001 at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Frankfurt and in 2002 at the Goethe Institute in Paris, as well as the 2007/2008 exhibition on Max Beckmann’s exile in Amsterdam, which was organised together with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungenand the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung. The archive is also the source of the catalogue raisonné of Max Beckmann’s sketchbooks that Christiane Zeiller has compiled; a critically annotated edition of the journals of the artist is also being prepared.

The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen and the non-profit "Freunde des Max Beckmann Archivs e. V." have made it possible for their archive to become the centre for collecting activity and research pertaining to the artist.

The archive has the largest collections of material on Max Beckmann and Stephan Lackner, who are portrayed in the network project Künste im Exil. Manifold cross connections arise as a result, both between the two men as well as to other people who are likewise represented by materials in the archive. In addition, varied relationships to other institutions emerge within the virtual museum Künste im Exil. 

Publikations (selection)

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen / Max Beckmann Archiv (Hg.): Briefe an Reinhard Piper. Bearbeitet von Christian Lenz. Ausst. Kat. München 1994 (= KulturStiftung der Länder – Patrimonia 95)
Minna Beckmann-Tube. Bearbeitet von Christian Lenz und Christiane Zeiller Ausst. Kat. München 1998 (= Hefte des Max Beckmann Archivs 2)
Felix Billeter, Max Beckmann und Günther Franke. Ausst. Kat. München 2000 (= Hefte des Max Beckmann Archivs 4)
Stephan Lackner – der Freund Max Beckmanns. Bearbeitet von Christian Lenz, Stephan Lackner, Marco Pesarese und Christiane Zeiller. Ausst. Kat. München 2000 / Frankfurt am Main 2001 / Paris 2002 (= Hefte des Max Beckmann Archivs 5)
Lenz, Christian, Max Beckmann Archiv (Hg.): Erwerbungen 1985 – 2008 (= Hefte des Max Beckmann Archivs 10) München 2008
Lenz, Christian, Max Beckmann Archiv (Hg.): Erwerbungen 2008 – 2010 (= Hefte des Max Beckmann Archivs 11 / 12). München 2010
Max Beckmann. Beiträge 2012 (= Hefte des Max Beckmann Archivs 13). München 2012 (mit Jahresberichten 1996 – 2012)