Blindman's Buff 1945

Curator: Max Beckmann’s “Blindman’s Buff,” painted in 1945 and now residing here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, leaps out with its… chaotic energy. What strikes you most immediately about it? Editor: It feels claustrophobic. Like all these figures are jammed into a space that's too small. There's a frenzy to it, a barely-contained anxiety, a kind of tension that I suspect comes from Beckmann's experiences in Nazi Germany. Curator: Absolutely. The compression, the distorted perspective, the heightened emotional state of everyone depicted… it all speaks to the turbulence of that period, doesn’t it? But what I find fascinating is that amidst the chaos, there's also this dark humor. Editor: Humor is interesting, given the work's historical setting. It might point toward some underlying cultural or social critique. It also appears very theatrical—is that the right reading? Curator: I think you’re spot-on. Look at the costumes, the strange accoutrements, the sense of performance. These characters are acting out something, but it's unclear exactly what. They seem caught in the midst of some dark ritual. Are they really just playing a game or is it more? Editor: And notice how the different panels of the work further add to this fragmentation of both setting and meaning. I wonder to what extent his experience in the First World War informs these disjointed spaces and these seemingly disconnected activities. It's this contrast between festivity and… something else, something much darker, that really unsettles me. Curator: Yes! He pulls you into that sense of disquiet, that sense of everything teetering on the edge. Maybe that’s exactly how the painting resonates so strongly. Because isn’t life like that game? We're all stumbling around, trying to make sense of the world while blindfolded. Editor: Yes, exactly. The more I sit with this piece, the more I can see both the deeply personal anxieties and historical wounds rendered so graphically, in a style so very expressionist. It's hard not to see it as something profoundly impactful. Curator: Indeed, it’s hard not to see his painting, these individuals together—however fragmented—as deeply resilient too. In painting their obscured humanity, I think it might just be a little more visible.