“Max Beckmann in New York”

Known for his penetrating Expressionistic self-portraits and enigmatic allegories, Max Beckmann (1884–1950) was one of the most prominent modernist painters of Weimar-era Germany. Yet he spent the last year of his life in New York City, the final stop along a long road of exile that began when he fled Hitler in 1937. On view are 14 paintings he made while living here, as well as other work dating from 1920 to 1948, the year he first came to America to teach at Washington University in St. Louis. The Met is an appropriate venue for this show: Beckmann died from a fatal heart attack on the corner of 69th Street and Central Park West just as he was making his way to the museum to see his freshly-installed canvas, Self-Portrait in Blue Jacket. It turned out to be one of the last things he made.