Hell: The Street , 1919. Max Beckmann (German, 1884-1950). Lithograph; sheet: 83.2 x 65.2 cm (32 3/4 x 25 11/16 in.). After World War I, Max Beckmann produced a portfolio of lithographs under the title Die Holle (Hell). Its publication coincided with civil unrest including heavy street fighting during the so-called November Riots of 1918 that followed Germanys defeat. Here, the caricatured faces and cropped, overpacked, and stage-like composition portray the ideologues, the war-maimed, the famished, and the deranged. One of Beckmanns contemporaries, the art historian Paul Schmidt, wrote that it signaled the artists new role as a prophet. This aligned with Beckmanns self-stated aim to expose the “ghastly cry of the poor disillusioned people.”