Franz Marc

(Mnchen, 8. veljae 1880. - Verdun, 4. oujka 1916. Rani ivot Roen u Munchenu u Njemakoj 1880., slikanjem se poinje baviti rano pod oevim utjecajem (otac se bavio slikanjem pejzaa). 1900, sa 20 godina upisuje Likovnu akademiju u Munchenu gdje je studirao pod mentorstvom nekolicine veoma utjecajnih profesora

razdoblje i stil- njemaki ekspresionizam biografija zanimljivosti opus

Expressionist movement in Germany following his time as well. The Blue Rider, was a magazine publication series, which he was a co-founder of; it focused on the movement, and it was well known to be connected to a small group of artists who were in charge of posting images, as well as breaking stories, during the time that the magazine was in existence in Germany.

Travels to Paris
Both in 1903 and again in 1907, he traveled to France, where he spent most of his time in Paris. Not only did he visit many of the local museums, he also got to meet with many of the artists in the area as well. During this time, he took much influence from Parisian art, and the artists which were most noted in the area. Copying the style which was used in the art forms he viewed, was a way for him to learn the different techniques, and a symbolic way to learn his own style in creation as well. While in Paris, he also discovered the work of Van Gogh, which he greatly appreciated, and took note of, in the future works he created. While in Paris, he also got involved with local artists, and many famous actors. Not only did this allow him to gain more experience, and learn from their influences, it also allowed Franz Marc to draw many of his styles, and artistic forms from the works of individuals which he was around often. Not only did his style follow the Parisian style, he also took much influence from the location, and the pieces that he created, during this early phase of his career.

Short lived Career

Although he was young during the peak of his career, this is namely due to the fact that Franz Marc lived an extremely short life, and died at the age of 36. He was married twice during his twenties, and was involved in stormy relationships during this period as well. In terms of his work, in 1906 he traveled with his brother Paul, to Mt. Athos, and several other Greek landmarks. This took shape in many of the pieces he created during this period of his career; in 1910, he also became acquainted with Auguste Macke, who not only had an influence on his work, but also his artistic style.

The Der Blaue Reiter Journal

It was in 1911 that Franz Marc founded the Blue Rider Journal. It was also during this time that he, and the fellow artists (including Macke) who founded the journal, took on a Neue Movement (new artists's association). It not only depicted the works of new artists, but the new styles of art that were beginning to forge in Germany, and other regions of the world. The exhibition which the journal held, featured many of the works which Franz Marc had created, between the periods of 1911 and 1912.

Futurist movement
In 1912, Franz Marc met with Robert Delaunay, who used color and design methods, in a futuristic manner; this led to the futurist movement. Marc became fascinated in this futuristic style, as well as in cubism, and it became a major influence for the work which he produced during this year, as well as the work which came forth following this period as well. Stark works, and those which were extremely advanced for their time,

including abstract nature, and bold colors and sharp angles, were some of the changes that were seen in the pieces which Franz Marc created, following the meeting he had with Delaunay, who introduced him to this new movement, and to this new style, that presented abstract, and new methods to present the same drawn out works of the past.

Distinct style
During his career, Franz Marc created about 60 pieces in lithography and woodcut. Many of his pieces depicted animals, in their natural setting and habitat. The use of bold, bright colors were often seen in his works as well. He took a cubist approach, in the display and creation of the animals that he depicted in his works; simplicity was often seen as a means to his creative process as well, as most pieces simply focused on the animal, and the raw emotion, as opposed to drawing in from external factors, to create the printed art works during his career.

Color scapes
He also gave meaning to the colors that were used in his pieces; blue was used to depict masculinity and a spiritual style; while yellow and lighter colors depicted femininity and joy. Red tones were often used to depict violence or some serious under toning in his work. His works were oppressed by the Nazis in the early 1930s, and nearly 130 pieces which Franz Marc had created, were removed from exhibits, and art shows that he had become a part of, in different cities in Germany.

Death
Although he died at the young age of 36, many of the pieces created by Franz Marc were influential, and well ahead of his time. Not only did they cause controversy in his home of Germany, the pieces he created also showed his extreme knack and ability to differentiate between color scapes, design, and unique images, using a minimal approach. Not only was his work highly appreciated during his time, and extremely short career, but to this day, Franz Marc is considered to be one of the most influential painters to come out of Germany, for the unique style, and for the creative approach he took towards depicting the everyday in his work.

Franz Marc, whose career was cruelly cut short by the First World War, has in recent years been the most popular of all the German Expressionists. One reason for this is supplied by his eloquent and touching letters. Another may be the fact that his work is not very typical of Expressionism as it is generally understood. He found a way of giving the German Romantic painters - Runge, Friedrich, Kobell, Blechen, Rethel and Schwind (all of whom he warmly admired) a new and modern guise. Marc was born in Munich in February 1880. His father, Wilhelm Marc, was a professional landscape painter. His mother, a strict Calvinist, came from Alsace, but had been brought up in French speaking Switzerland. Marc himself was a serious child, perhaps because of the repressive influence of his mother. In high school, his plan was to read theology, but he eventually enrolled at Munich University as a student of languages. In 1900, however, when his year of military service was over, he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and become a painter. He enrolled at the Munich Academy of Art. in 1903, with the first stage in his training completed, Marc went to Paris, where he spent several months, also visiting Brittany. He was greatly excited by his discovery of the Impressionists at the Durand Ruel Gallery and in letters home proclaimed them to be 'the only salvation for us artists', but they made little visible impact on his work. When he returned home he entered a state of deep depression with an 'anxiety that numbed the senses'. This was temporarily cured by a trip which he made to Salonika and Mount Athos in the spring of 1906, accompanying his brother, who was making a study of Byzantine manuscripts, but returned as soon as he got back to Paris. He tried to alleviate his condition by drowning himself in his work, but knew he was getting nowhere. He also got engaged to be married, which he regretted, and only disentangled himself by running away to Paris the day before the marriage ceremony, at Easter 1907. Once back in Paris, he was again entranced by the Impressionists. In a prophetic metaphor he said that he walked among their paintings 'like a roe deer in an enchanted forest, for which it has always yearned'. He also discovered the work of Gauguin and Van Gogh, and was impressed by the latter in particular. He declared that his own 'wavering, anxiety ridden spirit found peace at last in these marvellous paintings'. It was at this period that he began the intensive study of animals which was to lead to his mature style. He said that he wanted to recreate them 'from the inside', and made himself so complete a master of animal anatomy that he was able to give lessons in the subject, until igio, in order to earn some money. Though he felt he was now making some progress, he destroyed his more ambitious works, as they continued to dissatisfy him. In December 1908 he wrote a letter to Reinhart Piper:

I am trying to intensify my feeling for the organic rhythm of all things, to achieve pantheistic empathy with the throbbing and flowing of nature's bloodstream in trees, in animals, in the air. The year 1910 marked a significant turning point. In January he met August Macke, a painter seven years younger than him, but who seemed extremely sophisticated and well informed. Through Macke he learned something of the Fauves, and the following month was able to see what they were doing for himself, thanks to a Matisse exhibition in Munich. Macke also introduced him to the collector Bernard Koehler, who happened to be the uncle of Macke's wife. Koehler liked his work, and offered him a monthly allowance, which removed the worst of his financial worries. In September Marc defended the exhibition of the Neue Kuenstlervereinigung, which was being attacked by the local Munich critics, and was offered membership of the group as a result. He did not, however, meet Kandinsky, its leading spirit, until February 1911. By that time he had formed his own set of artistic principles, which were a mixture of Romanticism, Expressionism and Symbolism. In December 1910 he wrote a famous letter to Macke, assigning emotional values to colours: Blue is the male principle, astringent and spiritual. Yellow is the female principle, gentle, gay and spiritual. Red is matter, brutal and heavy and always the colour to be opposed and overcome by the other two. In 1911 he found himself ready to embark on the series of paintings of animals which have since been the cornerstone of his reputation. And in December, after a split in the Neue Kuenstlervereinigung, organized the first Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) exhibition. Formerly so ineffective and depressed, Marc had now become a most efficient organizer, and it was he who persuaded the publisher Reinhart Piper to bring out Kandinsky's fundamental text, On the Spiritual in Art, and he also played a leading part in the creation of the Blaue Reiter Almanach and the organization of a second and more ambitious Blaue Reiter show in 1912. In 1913 he took an important role in selecting and hanging Der Sturm's First Autumn Salon in Berlin, and noted how many of the exhibitors were veering towards abstraction. This confirmed his feelings which had begun to emerge when he and Macke went to Paris to visit Delaunayin 1912, and saw some examples from the latter's Window series. By the spring Of 1914 Marc's own work had become virtually abstract. This promising career was cut short by the war. Marc was mobilized and wrote numerous letters home from the Front, expounding his aesthetic philosophy, and kept a notebook with drawings for the paintings he would create as soon as he was free to do so. But he was denied the opportunity he hoped for. In March 1916 he was killed instantly when he was struck in the head by a shell splinter.

Franz Marc, (born February 8, 1880, Munich, Germanydied March 4, 1916, near Verdun,France), German painter and printmaker who is known for the intense mysticism of his paintings of animals. He was a founding member of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), an association of GermanExpressionist artists. Marcs early works were painted in a naturalistic academic style, but after discovering FrenchImpressionist painting in 1903 he adopted a more modern approach, using simplified lines and vivid colours. During a trip to Paris in 1907 he encountered the work of the Post-Impressionist painterVincent van Gogh, whose vigorous, emotional brushwork profoundly influenced him. Van Goghs effect on Marcs style is especially evident in Cats on a Red Cloth (190910). In 1910 Marc met the Russian-born painter Wassily Kandinsky, who was a member of a group of Expressionist artists known as the Neue Knstlervereinigung (New Artists Association). Marc joined the group in 1911 and worked closely with another member, the young painter August Macke, whose idiosyncratic use of broad areas of rich colour led Marc to experiment with similar techniques. Marc and Kandinsky split from the Neue Knstlervereinigung in 1911, forming a rival group of artists named Der Blaue Reiter. Together they edited an almanac of the same name, which was published in 1912. Having long been interested in Eastern philosophies and religions, Marc responded enthusiastically to Kandinskys notion that art should lay bare the spiritual essence of natural forms instead of copying their objective appearance. Kandinsky and Marc developed the idea that mystical energy is best revealed through abstraction. Marc believed that civilization destroys human awareness of the spiritual force of nature; consequently, he usually painted animals, and he was also passionately interested in the art of primitive peoples, children , and the mentally ill. Marcs philosophy can be seen in works such as Blue Horses (1911), in which the powerfully simplified and rounded outlines of the horses are echoed in the rhythms of the landscape background, uniting both animals and setting into a vigorous and harmonious organic whole. In this painting, as in his other mature works, Marc used a well-defined symbology of colour: blue, yellow, and red each stood for specific emotional qualities.

In 1912 Marcs admiration for the works of the French painter Robert Delaunay and for the ItalianFuturists made his art increasingly abstract. He began to use the faceted space and f orms of Delaunays brightly coloured Orphist compositions to express the brutal power and timorous fragility of various forms of animal life; an example is Tyrol (1914), a work that approaches abstraction. Marc joined the German army in 1914; he was killed in combat two years later.

FRANZ MARC 1880 - 1916. Uznemiren duhovnim previranjima krajem 19. st., pod utjecajem kasnog impresionizma,Nabisa i Jugendstila, poinje putem pojednostavljivanja pronalaziti uzajamne odnoseoblika u prirodi (kubistika varijanta njemakog ekspresionizma). Druei se s Kandinskimi Mackeom, trai analogije izmeu boje i zvuka. Sudjeluje u pokretanju revije i grupe Der Blaue Reiter . Godine 1911. zapoinje ciklus motiva sa ivotinjama (Crveni konji, Sudbinaivotinja, Srne u umi, uta krava, Kula plavih konja, Bik). Nije slikar ivotinja u tradicio-nalnom smislu, ve uivljavanjem u bit ivotinja pokazuje tenju ovjeanstva da se vrati ustanje suglasja sa svemirom, u skladu s filozofijom R. Steinera. Kao i van Gogh, razradio jeosobni simbolizam boja (plavo je muko naelo, uto je ensko, crveno je gruba i tekamaterija). 1912. g. orfizam Roberta Delaunaya pokazuje mu sve mogunosti boje u izraava-nju mistinih vjerovanja. Iste godine futurizam mu je pomogao oslikati dinamizam prirode . SUDBINA IVOTINJA Njegova vizija dosie apokaliptiku snagu. Kri-stalni oblici nalik krhotinama stakla koji prodiru jedni u druge asociraju na mrane sile koje vla-daju nerazumnim ivotinjama. Ovdje je doseg-nuta granica "vie" simboline stvarnnosti. Go-dinu dana kasnije gotovo sasvim naputa figurativnost i radi apstraktnim stilom, jednako takoavangardnim kao to je onaj Kandinskoga.

Franz Marc will for ever be remembered for his paintings of animals in brilliant colors and simplified, nearly cubist forms. Paintings like The Red Horses express a sense of beauty and perfection. The artist died in action in World War I at the age of only 36.
The images on this page are from Wikimedia Commons repository under the GNU Free Documentation License.. First Publication: November 2001 Latest Update: June 2013

Born in Munich
Blue Horse

By Franz Marc 1911

Franz Marc was born in Munich, Germany on February 8, 1880. His father worked as a professor at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. The young boy originally wanted to become a priest. Then he decided to study philosophy. But both ideas were abandoned and in 1900 he took painting classes at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Paris was at that time the center of the arts. Impressionism had revolutionized the traditional art world. Traveling to Paris and studying the modern painters like Claude Monet, van Gogh, orPaul Gauguin was a must for a progressive young artist. Marc Franz undertook several travels to Paris - the first in 1903 and again in 1907 and in 1912. He was deeply influenced by the modern French painters.

The Blue Rider

Together with Wassily Kandinsky, whom he had met at the Academy, Marc Franz founded the art association The Blue Rider. Other members were Gabriele Mnter and Alexeji Jawlensky. Later they were joined by August Macke and Paul Klee. Wassily Kandinsky later recalled how the name Blue Rider was born: "Franz Marcand I chose this name as we were having coffee one day on the shady terrace of Sindelsdorf. Both of us liked blue, Marc for horses, I for riders. So the name Blue Ridercame by itself."

For Franz Marc the group had become something like a home. He suddenly had companions with whom he could exchange his ideas about art. He developed a close friendship with Kandinsky and with August Macke. The group had a very positive effect on Marc's creativity. His artistic output nearly exploded - both in quality and in quantity. The Munich Tannhauser gallery was the exhibition platform for the group. In 1911 The Blue Rider had a group exhibition. And in 1913 Tannhauser organized a solo exhibition for the artist.

Franz Marc and his View on Animals

The Tiger

By Franz Marc 1912

Nearly all works of art created by Franz Marc show animals. He liked animals and saw in them innocent beings in harmony with nature. He wanted to paint the world out of the perspective of the animal. Marc was a very sensitive and spiritual man. Today, only hundred years later, it is not quite easy to understand the ideas of this artist and others, although they were documented in articles, books and letters.

Fighting Forms
In one of his last paintings, titled Fighting Forms from 1914, the artist had abandoned figural painting. He certainly created this painting under the influence of Wassily Kandinsky who had arrived at this step four years earlier. Kandinsky then had left figural painting for the first time and in 1912 he had published a book about the theory ofabstraction. It is pure speculation how Marc Franz would have developed his style if his life had not been finished so abruptly at the age of 36. Fighting Forms

By Franz Marc 1914

Marc and Macke volunteered for the German military service when World War I broke out. They had the idea that the war would be some kind of a purification of a spoiled and rotten civilization. Macke was killed in action at the very beginning of the war in 1914. And Marc, shell-shocked by what he saw and experienced, soon changed his opinion. In 1915 he wrote: "War is one of the most evil things to which we sacrificed ourselves." On March 4, 1916 he was killed in action.

On the Traces of the Blue Rider

A documentation video in German by Deutsche Welle. Duration: Less than 4 minutes. Thanks toDeutsche Welle. By the way, the images of the landscape and culture of the homeland of the Blue Rider artist movement are not exaggerated. I am personally happy to live in this traditional and beautiful part of Bavaria.

Franz Marc (1880 -1916)

FRANZ MARC (1880 -1916) 'Foxes', 1913 (oil on canvas)

Franz Marc was a German Expressionist painter who formed Der Blaue Reiter group with Wassily Kandinsky. They were part of an artistic movement who were searching for spiritual truth through their art. Marc believed that color had a vocabulary of emotional keys that we instinctively understand, much in the same way that we understand music. This language of color was one element that Marc used to raise his art to a higher 'spiritual' plane; another was his choice of subject.

'Tiger' - A Fusion of Styles

FRANZ MARC (1880 -1916) 'Tiger' 1912 (oil on canvas)

'Tiger' is a typical example of Franz Marc's painting style. It is a fusion of several influences: the expressive and
symbolic use of color that he discovered in the paintings of Van Gogh and Gauguin combined with the fragmented and prismatic compositions of various Cubist styles. The 'Tiger' and its surroundings are composed of geometric shapes whose similarity suggests both the camouflage of the tiger in its natural habitat and the harmony between the creature and its environment. Color is the main element used to separate the tiger from its background. Strong yellow and black shapes outline its form to convey the markings of the beast. The geometric shapes that make up its form are carefully proportioned and simplified to represent the tiger's features and its muscular body, while their rhythmic movement is echoed in the stylized shapes of the rocks and foliage of the background. This is indeed an idealistic view of nature - an image designed to lift its subject above the brutality of nature in the raw.

'Blue Horse'

FRANZ MARC (1880 -1916) 'Blue Horse' 1911 (oil on canvas)

Franz Marc painted animals as they symbolized an age of innocence, like Eden before the Fall, free from the materialism and corruption of his own time. Animals in Marc's art are seldom painted in isolation. They are viewed as idealized creatures in perfect harmony with the natural world they inhabit. Franz Marc yearned for a life on a higher spiritual plane. In fact, before he took up art, he studied Theology with a view to entering the priesthood. Ironically, his death was a sad contradiction of his hopes and dreams. He volunteered for service in the army at the start of World War 1 and never painted again. He was killed by a piece of shrapnel in 1916, during the assault on Verdun, the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.

Franz Marc Notes

AUGUSTE MACKE (1887-1914) 'Portrait of Franz Marc', 1910 (oil on canvas)

Franz Marc was a German Expressionist artist. Franz Marc was a co-founder of Der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider), a group of artists in the German Expressionist movement.

In contrast to many Expressionists whose subjects had a social or political message, Franz Marc searched for a spiritual quality in his art.

Franz Marc painted animals which he viewed as innocent creatures in an ideal world, uncorrupted by man. Franz Marc simplified his images into geometric shapes which fused the subject with its background. Franz Marc was killed in 1916 at the Battle of Verdun during World War One.