Max Bruning

Max Brüning (1887–1968) was a German painter and printmaker known for his psychologically powerful figure studies.  He trained at the Royal Academy of Graphic Arts and Printing Arts in Leipzig, and his career spanned expressionist, Art Deco, and symbolic motifs. During World War I, Brüning served as a war artist. Later, he lived in Berlin, observing the complex social atmosphere of the Weimar Republic. Like the other artists in the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) movement, such as George Grosz and Otto Dix, Brüning's prints often depicted the disillusionment and cynicism of the post-WWI period. Given the rarity of his surviving etchings and drypoints (many plates were destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II), each figure study is more than a representation; it’s a an emotionally resonant artifact of a vanished world.