Dutch treat; Max Beckmann.(Max Beckmann's paintings from 1937-47)

The pain of even comfortable exile

An exhibition in Amsterdam of a modern German master

CAST by the Nazis as a "cultural Bolshevik", Max Beckmann left Germany for America in 1937, but could not get a visa, so spent the war in Amsterdam. There Germany's great modernist produced about 300 works, a third of his entire output. Almost none of them, however, remains in the Netherlands.

An exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam makes up for this lack. On display are some of Beckmann's strongest works. The exhibition's curator, Beatrice von Bormann, has…