Franz Marc (in Extreme landscape)

Franz Marc born 8.2.1880 in Munich, died (fallen) 4.3.1916 near Verdun

"All phenomena of nature approach each other and join together to form an original harmony."

Franz Marc is considered the main representative of German Expressionism and one of the greatest painters of modernism. After dropping out of his studies in theology and philology, he began to study painting at the Munich Academy in 1900. Several journeys took him to Paris between 1903 and 1912. There he became acquainted with the art of the French Impressionists. In 1910 Marc met August Macke, who introduced him to Kandinsky. Just one year later, together with Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter, he founded the group "Der Blaue Reiter". At the end of 1911, the first exhibition "Der Blaue Reiter" took place in the Munich gallery Thannhauser. Because of the great success, it was subsequently shown in various cities. In Paris in 1912, Franz Marc and Macke visited the French avant-garde painter Robert Delaunay, whose art, like that of van Gogh, had a great influence on his further artistic development.

The painting of Franz Marc was characterized by the high symbolic power of color, about whose laws and effects he constantly exchanged with Macke. Marc developed a colourful visual language with pure tones and intense contrasts. Characteristic of his painting were the prismatic departure of forms and the crystalline structure of his paintings. Marc mainly painted animals, which he placed in a cosmic context and which expressed spiritual purity and redemption in their figurative symbolism. The development of Marc's painting style, with its tendency towards pure abstraction, was interrupted by the First World War. The painter volunteered for military service and was deployed in the French campaign. There, in the war, he died, as did his friend August Macke in 1916.

Text © Jürgen Banse, 2014