Franz Marc (1880 -1916)
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
"Is there a more mysterious idea for an artist then painting how the nature is reflected in the eyes of an animal? How does a horse see the world or an eagle, a deer or a dog?" ( Franz Marc 1911/12)
This quotation shows the intention of the german artist Franz Marc: to emphazise with the inner nature of the animal and coming to a knew awareness of the world.
Marc was born at 8th February 1880 in Munic as a child of an artist. His mother was a strict Cristian. First Marc planned to become priest, but then he decided to go to the college of art at his hometown. Soon it becames clear to him that it would be better to go on his own ways: He stoped his studies at the college and aquired an own atelier (1903). At this time he made trips to Paris with his brother, where he came in touch with the work of the impressionists and later with Van Gogh´s and Gauguins paintings. 1911 he founded the artistic foundation "Der Blaue Reiter" together with Wassily Kandinsky. They organized exhibitions in Berlin and Munic.
Inspired by Kandinsky´s paintings, Marc began to experiment with colors. One of the earlier works where this can be seen is "Horse In Landscape" ( 1910): There´s a purple horse with blue mane and tail looking in a landscape defined by yellow, red, green and blue areas. The horse is standing with it´s back to the observer, so that he can take it´s angle of vision.
Franz Marc developed his own idea of color: Blue stands for the masculine and intellectual, yellow for the femine and sensual principle. You can see this clearly when you compare the work "Die großen blauen Pferde"/ "The Big Blue Horses" (1911) with "Die kleinen blauen Pferde"/ "The Little Yellow Horses" (1912). The horses on the first painting have a serious looking, the second painting is much more cheerful. The backround has a cosmical touch with clouds and a blue bow above them.
Apart from horses, Marc painted dogs, cats, monkeys, cows and a lot of other animals. Other motives are rare.
At his later works it becomes obvious, that he began to paint much more abstract than at the beginning. There are geometrical formes which overlie and come through each other (Take a look at "Stallungen"/ "Stables" (1913) and "Kämpfende Formen"/ "Fighting Formes"(1913)).
Unfortunately Marcs work was interrupted by the First Worldwar. He becames soldier in France. Sketches from the front are showing fear and worry about this war, although he first saw the possibility of creating a new world order.
On 4th of march 1916 he was deadly hit by a shell spliter near Verdun.
1937 Marc was seen as a degenerate artist and his paintings were remoted of german museums.
Nowaddays he is seen as one of the most significant artists ot the 20th century.
For the paintings mentioned in this article take a look at
http://artchive.com/artchive/M/marc.html and
http://www.postershop.com/marc.htm
This quotation shows the intention of the german artist Franz Marc: to emphazise with the inner nature of the animal and coming to a knew awareness of the world.
Marc was born at 8th February 1880 in Munic as a child of an artist. His mother was a strict Cristian. First Marc planned to become priest, but then he decided to go to the college of art at his hometown. Soon it becames clear to him that it would be better to go on his own ways: He stoped his studies at the college and aquired an own atelier (1903). At this time he made trips to Paris with his brother, where he came in touch with the work of the impressionists and later with Van Gogh´s and Gauguins paintings. 1911 he founded the artistic foundation "Der Blaue Reiter" together with Wassily Kandinsky. They organized exhibitions in Berlin and Munic.
Inspired by Kandinsky´s paintings, Marc began to experiment with colors. One of the earlier works where this can be seen is "Horse In Landscape" ( 1910): There´s a purple horse with blue mane and tail looking in a landscape defined by yellow, red, green and blue areas. The horse is standing with it´s back to the observer, so that he can take it´s angle of vision.
Franz Marc developed his own idea of color: Blue stands for the masculine and intellectual, yellow for the femine and sensual principle. You can see this clearly when you compare the work "Die großen blauen Pferde"/ "The Big Blue Horses" (1911) with "Die kleinen blauen Pferde"/ "The Little Yellow Horses" (1912). The horses on the first painting have a serious looking, the second painting is much more cheerful. The backround has a cosmical touch with clouds and a blue bow above them.
Apart from horses, Marc painted dogs, cats, monkeys, cows and a lot of other animals. Other motives are rare.
At his later works it becomes obvious, that he began to paint much more abstract than at the beginning. There are geometrical formes which overlie and come through each other (Take a look at "Stallungen"/ "Stables" (1913) and "Kämpfende Formen"/ "Fighting Formes"(1913)).
Unfortunately Marcs work was interrupted by the First Worldwar. He becames soldier in France. Sketches from the front are showing fear and worry about this war, although he first saw the possibility of creating a new world order.
On 4th of march 1916 he was deadly hit by a shell spliter near Verdun.
1937 Marc was seen as a degenerate artist and his paintings were remoted of german museums.
Nowaddays he is seen as one of the most significant artists ot the 20th century.
For the paintings mentioned in this article take a look at
http://artchive.com/artchive/M/marc.html and
http://www.postershop.com/marc.htm
