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Beckmann was born in Leipzig into a farming family, who gave up their farm and moved to Leipzig after his birth. Beckmann drew from a young age, and in 1900 entered the Weimar Academy of Arts

Beckmann married Minna Tube in 1903, and the two moved to Paris. Beckmann also visited Florence and Geneva, before settling in Berlin in 1904. His first solo show came in 1912, and his earliest paintings show the influence of the impressionsists. His work was popular, and he was able to make a living from his art.

Beckmann served as a medic in World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of, but was dismissed after he suffered a nervous breakdownAlthough not a medical term, the phrase nervous breakdown is often used by laymen to describe a sudden and acute attack of mental illness e. clinical depression, anxiety disorder, etc. in a previously outwardly healthy person. Breakdowns are the result of. It is generally held that his experiences in the war had a big effect on his art, and were an important factor in pushing his style in a more expressionistExpressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for emotional effect. Expressionism is exhibited in many art forms, including painting, literature, film, and architecture. Additionally, the term often implies emotional angst the number of ch direction.

Beckmann taught artMona Lisa Although today the word art usually refers to the visual arts, the concept of what art is has continuously changed over centuries. Perhaps the most concise definition is its broadest—art refers to all creative human endeavors, excluding actions in Frankfurt am Main from 1915, but was dismissed from his post by the Nazi Party in 1933. At the beginning of the 30s, he made visits to Paris to paint, and it was around this time that he began to use the triptychA triptych (from the Greek tri "three" + ptyche "fold") is a painting which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together to form a complete artwork. Triptychs were most common with Renaissance painters and sculptors, es format, influenced in part by Hieronymus BoschHieronymus Bosch also Jeroen Bosch (c. 1450 August 1516) was a prolific Dutch painter of the 15th and 16th century. Many of his works depict sin and human moral failings; they contain complex, highly original, imaginative, and dense use of symbolic figure.

His art was condemned as Entartete Kunst (degenerate art) by the Nazis in 1937, and a day after the exhibition of degenerate art opened in Munich, Beckmann moved to Amsterdam. In 1947, he moved again to the United States, first to Missouri and later to New York City. He died in 1950 of a heart attack while on his way to see an exhibition of his work at the Metropolitan Museum.

Beckmann painted a number of self- portraits, including Self Portrait in Tuxedo (1927), which is widely regarded as a classic. Many of his other works represent scenes from everyday life. They often show grotesque, mutilated bodies, and are seen as commenting on the wrong-doings of the German government in the 1920s and 1930s as well as harking back to his World War I experiences.