Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Hannes Beckmann studied at the Bauhuas, Dessau in 1928 with Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Josef Albers 1932, he went to Vienna and studied photography for two years.

From 1938 to 1944, he was in Prague where he was director of a photographic studio, and from 1944 until the end of the war, he was interred in a concentration camp.

In 1948, he came to the United States where he settled in New York and was head of the Photographic Department at the Guggenheim Museum. After 1952, he taught Color and Design at the Cooper Union Art School in New York.

Source:
Perry Rathbone (Intro), American Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The following information, submitted April 2005, is from David J Rush, Instructor at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art:

"I was a student, and friend of Herr Beckmann. He died in 1976, and prior to that time he and I, along with Ben Cunningham, Charles Smith and Josef Albers were all collaborating on poly chrome concepts, using geometric form and pure color excitement. As it seems I am the only one left, as I cannot find Charles Smith, and I know the rest have past, oddly all in the same year 1976.

Hannes Beckmann, 1909 - 1977

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, October 8, 1909, Hannes Beckmann studied at the Bauhuas, Dessau 1928 - 1932 with Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and Josef Albers. In 1932, he went to Vienna and studied photography at Grapische Lehr und Versuchsanstalt for two years. From 1934 to 1944, he was in Prague where he was director of a photographic studio. During the German occupation of Czechoslovakia, Beckmann joined the resistance and was interned in a concentration camp in 1944 until the end of the war.

In 1948, with the assistance of Hilla Rebay, he came to the United States where he settled in New York. He was made head of the Photographic Department at the Guggenheim Museum. After 1952, he taught Color and Design at the Cooper Union Art School in New York. He was a visiting critic, Yale University, 1960 - 1961 and then taught at Dartmouth College, Visual Studies Program, 1970 - 1975.

Hannes Beckmann died July 19, 1977.

COLLECTIONS

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University

Bauhaus Archiv, Berlin

Newark Museum

Chase Manhattan Bank

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College

De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, MA

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY

ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS

1949 European Painters (with Otto Nebel, Vordemberge-Gildewart and Lotti Konnerth), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Museum of Non-Objective Painting, New York, New York.

1962 Kanegis Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts (also '63, '64, '65, '66, '68, '74)

1970 Beaumont-May Gallery, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

1973 Jacob H. Strauss Gallery, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

1975 Carpenter Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New hampshire

1976 Nashua Arts and Science Center, Nashua, New Hampshire

1976 Danforth Museum, Framingham, Massachusetts

1976 Johnson Gallery, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont

1977 Ava Gallery, Hanover, New Hampshire

1977 - 1978 Geothe Institutte Touring Exhibition - Atlanta, Worcester, Burlington, Boston, Montreal, Toronto and New York City

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1951 Museum of Non-Objective Painting, New York, New York

1958 Lincoln Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. Newark Art Museum, Newark, New Jersey

1960 Group Ten, Riverside Museum, New York, New York

1961 Logic and Magic of Color, Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture, New York, New York

1962 American Painting, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA.

1963 New England Painters, De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts
Science and Technology In Art, I.B.M. Gallery, New York, New York
Color and Form, Castellane Gallery, New York, New York
Art School Faculty Exhibition, Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture, New York, New York

1965 Color Dynamism, Then and Now, East Hampton Gallery, New York, New York
Retinal Painting, University of Texas Museum, Austin, Texas
The Responsive Eye, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York (also, The City Art Museum of St. Louis, Seattle Art Musesum, Pasadena Art Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art)

1966 Art for the United States Embassies, Art in Embassies Program, State Department Traveling Exhibition

1967- 70 Fifty Years Bauhaus, Wurttembergischer, Kunstverein, Stuttgart (also London, Amsterdam, Paris, Chicago, Pasadena, Buenos Aires, Tokyo)

1968 Visitors' Forum, Beaumont-May Gallery, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

1969 Art For Study: The Modern Tradition, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts

The Square in Painting, American Federation of Arts traveling exhibition

1970 The Studio Museum in Harlem. Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, New York

1971 Concepts of the Bauhaus: The Busch-Reisinger Museum Collection, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard, University, Cabmridge, Massachusetts

1973 A Retrospective of Selected Artists in Residence, Jaffe-Friede Gallery, Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College and the New City Hall Exhibition Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts
Artists of the Bauhaus, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan