Beckmann's graphic work, the drawings and prints that run alongside his paintings like a private diary, is where his most uninhibited and daring instincts emerge. Freed from the monumental ambitions of the large canvas, the works on paper often go further into erotic territory.

The Hell (Die Hölle) portfolio of 1919, a sequence of eleven lithographs responding to the political violence of the post-war years, deploys erotic imagery with satirical intent – pleasure is corrupted, and desire is shown as inseparable from power and exploitation.

Beckmann was a compulsive draughtsman, and his drawings include rapid sketches from life, studies for the large compositions, and independent works that explore narrative scenarios. The relationship between the sexes in these works is rarely straightforward. Men generally watch and women perform, but the dynamic shifts and reverses with disquieting frequency. In many of the figure studies it is unclear who holds power and who does not. This ambiguity is not accidental; it reflects Beckmann's belief that desire, like everything else in human experience, is a place of struggle and chaos.

Beckmann’s drawings and etchings are shown here in chronological order.