Growing up in St. Louis, Missouri, you wouldn’t expect that I’d have much exposure to visual art. However, one of the city’s best-kept secrets, the St. Louis Art Museum, houses some of the world’s most influential paintings, sculptures, and ancient masterpieces. The museum also holds an extensive collection of works by Max Beckmann, a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor active during the early 1900s.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but Beckmann’s paintings had a significant impact on me as a child. I’m not sure if it was his expressive use of thick black lines, the exaggeration of the human form, or his intense use of color, but his work spoke to me. It was the first time I understood that art didn’t need to be pretty, or even perfect, to be powerful.

Beckmann’s art was driven by a movement born out of the harsh realities of post-war Germany. New Objectivity emerged in the 1920s as a reaction against the overly romantic beauty of Expressionism. Instead, it embraced a raw, unvarnished approach, depicting the gritty aftermath of World War I. Artists like Beckmann, Otto Dix, and George Grosz, focused on themes of corruption, poverty, and the disillusionment of modern life. Their work mixed realism with satire, delivering bold and honest commentaries on the politics and social issues of the time.

One of Beckmann’s more notable paintings, Departures (1932), served as the inspiration for naming this deck, while his earlier works from the early 1920s served as the visual inspiration. 

Creating this deck now feels especially fitting, as it’s hard to ignore the parallels between today’s social, political, and economic uncertainties and the events of a century ago.