Self - Portrait

The first print of Beckmann’s Gesichter series, ‘Self Portrait’ (originally completed in 1918) features Beckmann’s stern gaze, lips pursed and brow furrowed as he fixes the spectator with grim directness. As an opening image, ‘Self Portrait’ aptly introduces the viewer to the themes of the series: Gesichter literally translates to ‘faces’, and this is not the first time Beckmann’s own will feature amongst the other characters that appear in these prints; but the term can also more loosely mean ‘visions’ or ‘appearances’, and in this sense Beckmann’s glare in ‘Self Portrait’ anticipates the bleak realities of war and economic depression that Gesichter encapsulates.