Max Neumann German, b. 1949

German artist Max Neumann's paintings center on faceless heads and bodies, reduced to shadow and outline in a distinctly Neo-expressionist practice of abstracting the human form. Constituting the crux of Neumann’s compositions, these subjects carry tremendous weight despite their lack of classic individuality and psychology as they represent the extreme limit of our modern, universal rootlessness. They are dreamlike, fragmented recollections reduced to the outline, shape, and shadows of the originals. As Neumann describes, “the more you leave out, the more intense the expression becomes…they have no special attributes. They are spectres, shadows. What’s very important to me is the intensity, the presence.” Often using a mix of materials and readymade images, Neumann has constructed a visual vocabulary born from innumerable sources. Swashes of pastels and blocks of color show up in his work, though he primarily paints with black, crafting in these contrasts a suggestion of a deeper meaning, which the artist leaves to viewer interpretation and imagination. With his abstracted compositions, Neumann has created a visual language of mankind, universally encapsulating both contemporary unease and human autonomy. The central motivation, as asserted by the artist himself, is that “it’s as though you’d like to speak, but have no language.”

Born in 1949 in Saarbruck, Germany, Neumann states he has been painting non-stop since fourteen-years-old, when his parents gifted him a few brushes, paint, and some paper for Christmas. He studied art in Kalsruhe and later at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin from 1970-1973, where he was a master student under Martin Engelmann. Neumann achieved his breakthrough in the Berlin art scene in the late 1970s. He has been the recipient of many awards including the BDI (Germany Industry Federation), the Villa Romana Award, the Dr. Dietrich Schluz Art Foundation Award, the Award of the City of Iserlohn, and the Grand Prix de S.A.S. le Prince Rainer III of Monaco.

Since the late 1970s the artist has had more than 150 solo exhibitions internationally. Among them are The Museum Folkwang, Essen; Saarlandmuseum Saarbruck; the Centre d’Art Plastiques, Royan; Espace d’Art Contemporain André Malraux, Colmar; Gallery Vidal-Saint Phalle, Paris; Gallery Stefan Röpke, Cologne; Gallery Pascal Polar, Brussels; Mimmo Scognamiglio artecontemporanea, Milan; Galería Arnés y Röpke, Madrid; Gallery Georg Nothelfer, Berlin; and Satani Gallery, Tokyo.

His works are in numerous public and private collections such as the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; The Museum Folkwag, Essen; Museo de Bellas Artes, Oviedo; Hamburger Kunsthalle; Fondation Maeght, St. Paul de Vence; and the Seibu Museum, Tokyo. Max Neumann lives and works in Berlin.