Index Magazine

Art Talk: Max Beckmann’s Self-Portrait in Tuxedo

July 20, 2020
Index Magazine

Art Talk: Max Beckmann’s Self-Portrait in Tuxedo

This framed painting shows an older white man in a tuxedo holding a cigarette. At rgiht, the image is reflected in the glass of a gallery.

In this talk, curator Lynette Roth takes a close look at Max Beckmann’s Self-Portrait in Tuxedo (1927), examining its institutional, art historical, and cultural and political significance to ask the question: what can this enigmatic, nearly century-old painting by a German artist tell us today?

This video is part of our Art Talks series, in which our team of curators, conservators, fellows, and graduate students share short, informal videos that offer an up-close look at works from the collections. 

Speaker:
Lynette Roth, Daimler Curator of the Busch-Reisinger Museum and Head, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art

Work explored:
Max Beckmann, German, Self-Portrait in Tuxedo, 1927. Oil on canvas. Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Association Fund, BR41.37. © Max Beckmann/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Germany.

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