Ackermann, Max

Description:

Berlin, 1887 - Unterlengenhardt, 1975
185 x 140 cm, R.
"An die Freude", 1956 - 1959. Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in oil lower right, as well as signed, dated and titled in oil on the reverse of the stretcher.
Galerie Döbele, Suttgart.
Collection Monika and Horst Bülow, Leonberg, acquired there in 1987.
Exhibition:
Württembergischer Kunstverein (reverse with exhibition label).
"Max Ackermann 1887 - 1975. Zum 100. Geburtstag", Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1987, no. 99 (with full-page colour fig.).
The monumental painting "An die Freude" was created between 1956 and 1959 and counts among Max Ackermann’s most significant postwar works. The title unequivocally invokes Friedrich Schiller’s ode and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, whose visionary force Ackermann translates into an abstract pictorial language. Instead of figuration, the viewer encounters a chromatic sound-space whose rhythmically placed planes and vibrating brushstrokes produce an almost orchestral effect.
A powerful dramaturgy of colour governs the composition: radiant blues and violets dominate, while accents in red, yellow, and green function like brilliant musical entries. Densely woven structures and short, plucked brush movements create a layered tapestry in which rest and movement, harmony and contrast, stand in charged relation. The dynamism of forms, the stratification of colours, and the pulsing surface texture allow the work to appear as a symphony of light and colour.
Ackermann’s aim of aligning painting with musical principles reaches a culmination here. Abstraction becomes the vehicle of emotions that recall Beethoven’s setting of Schiller’s "Ode an die Freude": the celebration of humanity, the vision of universal brotherhood, the translation of music into pure chromatic energy. More than homage, the painting offers a synesthetic experience that draws the viewer into a visualized sound-space.
The extended genesis from 1956 to 1959 testifies to Ackermann’s intensive engagement with composition, rhythm, and harmony. The large canvas expresses his postwar maturity and his striving for a universal language of art uniting the sensuous and the spiritual.
"An die Freude" is a key work in Ackermann’s oeuvre and an outstanding example of his ability to elevate painting into the musical and the spiritual.