The Beckmann that got away from Serota

Nicholas Serota went the extra mile, including by Greyhound bus across the Midwest, to borrow ten triptychs by Max Beckmann for an extraordinary loan show at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1980, its former director recalls in a new book about the graphic design of the East End institution. When the Whitechapel and co-organiser, the Stedelijk in Amsterdam, first wrote to the owners, we got nine letters of refusal, Serota told the books author Christopher Wilson. Instead of throwing in the Beckma