Franz Marc (1880-1916)
 9781783100057, 1783100052

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Franz Marc

Page 4: August Macke Portrait of Franz Marc, 1910 Oil on paper, 50 x 39 cm Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin

Authors: Klaus H. Carl and Franz Marc Layout: Baseline Co. Ltd 61A-63A Vo Van Tan Street 4th Floor District 3, Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam © Confidential Concepts, worldwide, USA © Parkstone Press International, New York, USA Image-Bar www.image-bar.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or adapted without the permission of the copyright holder, throughout the world. Unless otherwise specified, copyright on the works reproduced lies with the respective photographers, artists, heirs or estates. Despite intensive research, it has not always been possible to establish copyright ownership. Where this is the case, we would appreciate notification. ISBN: 978-1-78310-005-7

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Everyone who shapes and organises life searches for the right foundation; the rock on which to build. This foundation has only rarely been found within tradition - oft proven to be illusory and fleeting. Great painters do not search for their subjects from amongst those who have been lost to the sands of time, but they instead explore the real and deep focus of their own time. Only in this way can they create their own technique and style of painting. · Franz Marc

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Biography 1880

Franz Marc was born on the 8th of February in Munich.

1894-1899

He studied at the Luitpold Gynasium and graduated with a diploma.

1899

Served in the military. Also enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Munich.

1900

Began to study painting.

1901

Marc travelled with his brother Paul to Venice, Padua, and Verona.

1902

Completed plein air painting near Kochel (Bavaria), including Peat Moss Huts at Dachau.

1903

Marc travelled, following an invitation of a fellow student to Paris, returning through Brittany and Normandy. Saw Manet, Monet, and Renoir at the Galerie Durand-Ruel.

1904

Moved into his first independent studio in Munich (Kaulbachstraße 68) and moved again at the end of the year (Schellinger Street 33). Painted Indersdorf.

1905

Painted The Dead Sparrow and Little Horse Study.

1906

Visited Greece and Mount Athos. Painted Two Women on the Hillside.

1907

Journeyed again to Paris and found himself greatly impressed with the works of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.

1908-1909

Marc spent time in Tolz (Bavaria) and was influenced by the works of Van Gogh. Painted Larch Trees and Deer at Dusk.

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1910

Encountered art dealers Brakl and Thannhauser, as well as August Macke. In the autumn, Marc participated in the second exhibition of the New ArtistsÊ Association at the Galerie Thannhauser in Munich. Painted Nude with Cat, Grazing Horses and began Dog Lying in the Snow.

1911

Marc was made a member of the New ArtistsÊ Association in Munich, as well as their third Chairman. Produced Deer in the Snow, Blue Horse I, The Steer, Monkey-Frieze, Donkey-Frieze, Blue-Black Fox, and Little Blue Horses.

1912

Encountered the artists of Die Brücke (The Bridge), as well as Paul Klee. Travelled to Paris with Auguste Macke where they visited Robert Delaunay, a participant of the Second Exhibition of The Blue Rider group. Painted Girl with a Cat, Red Deer, The Little Blue Horse, The Tiger, Three Animals (Dog, Fox, and Cat).

1913

Marc participated in the preparation for the First German Autum Salon. Produced The Tower of Blue Horses, Foxes, Animal Fates, The Mandrill, Painting with Cattle.

1914

Took part in the Expressionist exhibition in Dresden. Moved to Ried. Marc volunteered for World War I from the start, 1st of August. Painted The Birds, Deer in the Forest, Fighting Forms, Broken Forms.

1914-1916

Began what would become his famous sketchbook, as well as the final version of Tyrol.

4 March 1916 Franz Marc was mortally wounded by shelling in Braquis near Verdun. 1916

Retrospective at the New Munich Secession.

1937

MarcÊs art was banned on the grounds that it was „Degenerate Art‰

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Germany at the end of the 19th Century – the Imperial Period Germany, the victor of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871, was ruled by Emperor William I (17971888). From his time as Crown Prince, hence before his enthronement as Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, he was nicknamed „Prince of Grapeshot‰; an unflattering name brought about because of his alleged participation in the suppression of the 1848/1849 Revolution, caused by Johann (Max) Dortu (1826-1849) who was later executed for „treason‰.

Portrait of the Artist’s Mother 1902 Oil on canvas, 98.5 x 70 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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In his official duties, William I, who had reluctantly accepted the position of German Emperor, was supported by Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898). The chancellor was compelled to spend a considerable amount of time on the Socialist Act (the German AntiSocialist Law which was passed in order to curb the dangerous strength of the Social Democratic Party), thus giving reason for his dismissal in 1890 under William II. The British satirical magazine Punch of the 29th of March 1890, under the headline of the famous cartoon „Dropping the Pilot‰ hit the nail on the head.

Cottage on the Dachau Marsh 1902 Oil on canvas, 43.5 x 73.6 cm Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See

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The Frankfurter Zeitung of the 10th of October 1878 reported on a session of the Reichstag:

„TodayÊs meeting of the Reichstag, in which the debate on the second reading of the Socialist Act, had its start. It turned out to be one of the stormiest and most passionate meetings we have ever witnessed in the Leipziger Strasse. TodayÊs meeting can be described as a duel between Bismarck and Sonnemann. Probably never before was a more serious and unjustified, or more far-fetched accusation thrust into the face of an

Indersdorf 1904 Oil on canvas, 40 x 30.5 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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elected representative as happened today on the part of the Chancellor towards the deputy of Frankfurt from the stands of the Reichstag – charging him with treason, albeit veiled, which is punishable under the penal code with imprisonment. [...]‰

In spite of further heated debates, this bill, which corresponded to a ban of the Socialist and Social Democratic parties, was finally adopted in the autumn of 1878 and it remained in force until 1890. Due to the social hardship that affected most of the workers, it had become an urgent need to

Small Horse Study II 1905 Oil on cardboard, 27 x 31 cm Property of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See

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counterbalance the negative effects. As an efficacious „sedative‰, health insurance was introduced in 1883, thereafter followed by accident insurance a year later, and finally, in 1889, old-age insurance became part of the social legislation. A further focus of BismarckÊs policy was, as from around the mid-1880s, the initial and half-hearted operation of the colonial policy. After all, Germany was amongst the major powers of Europe (along with Britain, France, and Russia) who had already ruled, for quite a time, over colonies. Finally in 1884 and 1885, Bismarck was able to acquisition the colonies of Togo,

The Dead Sparrow 1905 Oil on panel, 13 x 16.5 cm Sammlung Erhard Kracht Stiftung Moritzburg - Kunstmuseum des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt, Halle 16

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Cameroon, German East Africa, and German SouthWest Africa. The latter two were initially acquired by two private entrepreneurs. This meant that Germany took part in the race for African colonies, which in the long run would ultimately be deemed unsuccessful. Another key element after the victory in the FrancoPrussian War was the culture struggle between the Empire and the Catholic Church under Pope Pius IX (1792-1878). The main issue was the separation of church and state, and to which, as a result, we owe the introduction of civil marriage. For the French, their defeat in the Franco-Prussian War proved costly; they were obliged, after all – besides

Two Women on the Hillside 1906 Oil on canvas, mounted on cardboard, 15.5 x 24.7 cm Property of the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See

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the loss of Alsace and Lorraine departments – to pay on top of what they already owed, five billion francs in war reparations. This amount supported GermanyÊs post-war economy significantly. No time was wasted in using the increase in finances for not only replacing previous lost military equipment, but also buying new inventions and developing existing technology. These technical innovations promoted industrialisation and hence the urbanisation and transformation of Germany into a country of immigration for workers from Eastern countries. The innovations were mainly (the following list is not absolutely complete) the electric streetcar (Siemens), the worldÊs first line of which was

Woman in the Wind by the Sea 1907 Oil on cardboard, 25 x 16 cm Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See

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inaugurated in 1881 in Berlin; the introduction of electric street lighting in Nuremberg and Berlin (1982); and the steam turbine developed in 1885 by Carl Gustaf Patrik de Laval (1883, Switzerland) and Parsons (1884, Britian); and the first (three-wheel) petrol car built by Carl Benz. In the same year, the Viennese chemist Auer von Welsbach developed his approach of gas lighting for mass production, Otmar Mergenthaler invented the Linotype typesetting machine for printing houses (1886), Emil Berliner applied for a patent for the record as a successor of the gramophone (1887), and later, for more comfortable transportation in the Benz automobile, the Scottish veterinarian John Boyd Dunlop

Sheaves of Grain 1907 Oil on canvas, 78.74 x 58.42 cm Museum of Art, University of Iowa, Iowa City

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invented air-filled tires in 1890, which was, however, initially only designed and used for bicycles. As the most important inventions then, as well as today, were primarily designed for a military operation rather than a civilian one, the American Hiram Maxim developed the machine gun as a successor of medieval guns in 1885. The Maxim Gun was employed during the colonial wars against the less skilled and prepared natives, who were generally only armed with shield and spear. It was also successfully used in World War I. In 1897, on the basis of electromagnetic waves, as detected by Heinrich Hertz, Guglielmo Marconi

Jumping Dog “Schlick” 1908 Oil on cardboard, on wood, 54.5 x 67.5 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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invented wireless telegraphy. The late 1800s were thrilling and exciting years. In contrast to his early years, towards the end of his reign „Prince Grapeshot‰ William I was quite popular amongst the people. This was despite four assassination attempts made on him – two of which wholly failed, the first attempt had slightly wounded his neck, and only the third attempt severely injured the Prince in the head; his life probably saved due to his spiked helmet, widely regarded as a symbol of Prussian militarism. Bismarck primarily utilised this attack to enforce the abovementioned Socialist laws in the Reichstag. William I died after a short illness on the 9th of March 1888.

Large Lenggries Horse Painting I 1908 Oil on cardboard, 104.8 x 206 cm Private collection

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One indication of his (late) popularity is the song Fehrbellins horsemans march composed by Richard Hennion, an extract of which was often sung, bawled, or blared at an ungodly hour: „We want to have our good old Kaiser William back‰. In order to ultimately avoid imperial confusion, the second and final line of the song continued, „But the one with a beard, but the one with a beard‰. William IÊs successor, and the last German emperor, was a firm believer in divine right. He was the gifted, but occasionaly slightly infantile and stubborn, grandson of Wilhelm II, whose father, the Crown Prince Frederick, had died after a short time on the throne. Wilhelm IIÊs

Larch Sapling 1908 Oil on canvas, 100 x 71 cm Museum Ludwig, Cologne

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reign culminated in World War I, at the end of which, on the 9th of November 1918, he had to abdicate the throne. The Netherlands granted him, after some hesitation, asylum until his death. So far, in very general terms, we have the history of the German Empire. In literature, Realism was followed by the era of Naturalism, especially in the field of drama, throughout the 1880s at least. Here, a number of issues were raised, which single-handedly resulted in working-class districts, mainly due to increasing industrialisation, urbanisation, and social conditions. One of the main representatives of dramatic poetry was the future Nobel Prize for

Shepherdess with her Sheep 1908-1909 Watercolour and opaque white, 21.2 x 29.5 cm Kupferstichkabinett, Hamburg

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Literature winner (1912), Gerhart Hauptmann, who first grabbed attention with a few of his early works, and later with his social drama Before Sunrise (1888/1889), his play The Weavers (1888/1892), the comedy The Beaver Coat (1892/1893), and the five act play The Rats (1903) which hit the right themes and made him famous. His comprehensive poetry and prose are also not to be overlooked. The Nobel Prize was preceded by many portraits created by well-known artists, followed by other honours and awards. His membership in the Society for Racial Hygiene (1905) and the National Socialist German WorkersÊ Party (NSDAP), which he joined as early as 1933,

Study of a Horse 1908-1909 Oil on canvas, 40 x 26 cm Sammlung Erhard Kracht, Stiftung Moritzburg Kunstmuseum des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt, Halle

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show his one-sided but uncritical proximity to the ruling class. However, the party did not overly appreciate Gerhart HauptmannÊs value, as was shown by a note written in 1942 from the Rosenberg office (an agency for culture and monitoring policies during the Nazi era): „While recognising the creative artistic power of Hauptmann, the ideological stance of the majority of his works from the Nazi point of view is to be criticised.‰ In the area of classical music, the turn of the century was essentially dominated by the Impressionists in Germany. Here, it was primarily the composer and member of the Combat League for German Culture, the Nazi cultural politician Paul Graener; Sigfried Karg-Elert,

Oak Tree 1909 Oil on canvas, 83.5 x 104 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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only known by outspoken experts nowadays, who succeeded with his work particularly in the United States and in Britain; Walter Rudolph Niemann, who had studied with one of the main masters of late Romanticism, the unforgettable Engelbert Humperdinck, who has left an almost unbelievably extensive musical heritage as well as the fairy-tale opera Hansel and Gretel (1893), which is still on Christmas theatre repertoires; as well as Johannes Brahms, whose lifeÊs work is divided between Germany and Austria. This genre of music especially flourished in GermanyÊs neighbouring countries with composers such as Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and Franz Liszt.

Deer at Dusk 1909 Oil on canvas, 70.5 x 100.5 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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The „hit‰ songs of so-called light entertainment originated mainly from Austrian operetta music, which was ensured by more than the Strauss dynasty. In Berlin, Germany, the dominating role was held by the successful melodies of Paul Linke and Eduard Künneke. They created a kind of music which would stir a positive optimism, especially in post-war periods. The area of smaller art and cabaret was mainly safeguarded, especially in the years after World War I, by the unforgettable Otto Reutter in Berlin (whose son, like Franz Marc, was killed in the spring of 1916 at Verdun) and after World War II by the completely impoverished Claire Waldoff.

Cats 1909-1910 Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 60.5 cm Private collection

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Franz Marc Franz Marc was born in Munich on the 8th of February 1880. His father, probably following his own parentsÊ wishes, had successfully completed a law degree before he devoted himself to landscape painting. He created a painting that shows his 15 year-old son, Franz Marc, carving wood (c. 1895, Franz Marc Museum). His mother was of Alsatian descent and as it was then described, worked at home as a teacher. Franz had an older brother, Paul (1877-1949). Both attended the Luitpold Gymnasium in Munich, which Franz completed in 1899, passing the final examinations.

Siberian Sheepdogs (Siberian Dogs in the Snow) 1909-1910 Oil on canvas, 80.5 x 114 cm Private collection

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The year 1880 could be described as the „year of the painter‰, because other famous artists such as André Derain (-1954), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (-1938), Fritz Bleyl (-1966), Hans Hofmann (-1966), and Max Clarenbach, a painter of the Düsseldorf School (-1952), were also born. After graduating, Marc originally wanted to study philosophy and theology, and therefore enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Munich with the objective of becoming a high school teacher. A year later, however, he decided to become a painter and joined the Royal Bavarian Academy where he studied with Gabriel von Hackl (1843-1926), with whom a few students who later became famous also studied; however, Von HacklÊs

Bathing Girls 1910 Oil on canvas, 106.7 x 141.6 cm Private collection

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own works are largely forgotten. Marc also studied with Wilhelm von Diez (1839-1907), who was the leading figure at the Academy for many years and who merits recognition in the field of Colourism. However, Marc remained there only until he returned from a long trip to Paris, through northern France and Belgium. Since academic painting displeased him, and he had discovered Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), and Édouard Manet (1832-1883) in Paris, as well as bringing back some Japanese woodcuts, he decided to leave the Academy preferring to educate himself autodidactically.

Nude with Cat 1910 Oil on canvas, 86.5 x 80 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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MarcÊs early works were quite naturalistic, but already demonstrated his admiration for Van Gogh and Gauguin. He painted in addition to creating some prints and small sculptures. He drew his inspiration mostly from nature. These were landscapes, some nudes, and animals, which became extremely important and characteristic for his work. Around 1908, he began to intensify his studies of movement, behaviour, and the nature of animals. He spent hours watching and sketching cows and horses in the Bavarian meadows and deer in the woods. There is a series of photographs that Marc perhaps took himself, showing how he had sometimes even hidden in dense reeds. Deer in the Reeds (1909) is a typical work

Grazing Horses I 1910 Oil on canvas, doubled, 64 x 94 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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of this period. The influence of Van Gogh can be seen in the shaded, broken brush strokes of the grass. The sensitivity with which the rapid movements of the deer were captured, however, was already typical for Marc. In the process of his artistic maturation he was interested – as part of the trend of Expressionism – in universals, fundamental ethical and philosophical questions, and „the spiritual‰ and redemptive power of art in the modern world, which was, as he and his friends believed, too superficial and materialistic. In search of a deeper experience of the inexpressible, Marc once said to his friend Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944): „I will try to think thoughts that dance behind a black curtain.‰ The year 1910 was very

Grazing Horses II 1910 Tempera, 26.5 x 40 cm Private collection, Switzerland

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important for Marc. At that time he met the painter August Macke (1887-1914) for the first time, who became a close friend and who helped Marc and led him out of his artistic isolation. But he was also an important discussion partner with whom Marc was able to analyse the techniques of painting and its most pressing and complex thoughts. One of MarcÊs most frequently quoted statements about his art originated from a letter to Macke from the first year of their friendship:

„Blue is the male principle, astringent and spiritual. Yellow the female principle, gentle, cheerful, and sensual. Red is the substance, brutal, heavy, and always the colour which must be fought and overcome by the other two.‰

Grazing Horses IV 1911 Oil on canvas, 121 x 182.9 cm Private collection

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The year 1910 was also the year of his first solo exhibition at the Brakl gallery in Munich. Moreover, Marc had secured the financial support of the industrialist and art patron Bernhard Koehler (1849-1927), an uncle of MackeÊs wife. Marc gave up his studio in Munich and moved to Sindelsdorf in Upper Bavaria with his future second wife, the painter Maria Franck (1876-1955), whom he had met in 1905 at a Schwabinger costume party, but had quickly lost sight of. His first, much older wife, the painter Marie Schnür (1869-1955) had given her teacher a son out of wedlock, whom she brought into the marriage in March 1907. A mutual great love was probably not

Horse in a Landscape 1910 Oil on canvas, 85 x 112 cm Museum Folkwang, Essen

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the basis of this marriage, and it was dissolved about a year later. Schnür had achieved what she had set out to do: because of her marriage she could live with her son, who had, up until then been housed with her parents. There is a slightly earlier photo (1906), of Maria Franck, Franz Marc, and Marie Schnür, where they are peaceful and completely nude in the open free nature of Kochel Lake – a picture of happy days together. To enter into marriage with Mary Franck, the two lovers needed a dispensation, required by canon law, that was, however, not unexpectely, denied twice. In order to be considered nontheless as a legally married couple, they traveled to England to marry according to local law.

Blue-Black Fox 1911 Oil on canvas, 50 x 63.5 cm Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal

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Since this attempt also failed, from then on they simply called themselves a couple and lived together. The concept of life partners or even of a life companion was at the time absolutely unthinkable and almost unheard of. There is also a photograph of their stay in Sindelsdorf that shows Marc in a totally relaxed manner. In the following winter, Marc found the snowy and frozen landscape beautiful, but „... too pure white and blue‰. It might have been an effort to face the challenge of there being so much white when he painted his beloved Siberian shepherd dog Russi in January snow (Dog Lying in the Snow 1910/1911,

Yellow Cow 1911 Oil on canvas, 140.5 x 189.2 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

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Städel Museum). Marc wrote a letter to Macke, which gives a fascinating insight into the technical problem with this picture. He drew a hastily jotted small sketch of the picture for his friend and wrote:

„I painted my Russi lying on a field of snow, I made the snow pure white with pure blue depths, the dog, dirtyyellow. [...] I will now make in stages, the dog Âmore pure colouredÊ (light yellow), each time, when the colour became purer, the coloured edges of the dog disappeared, more and more, until finally, a pure colour ratio between the yellow, the cold white of the snow, and the blue was restored. Furthermore, the mass

Blue Horse I 1911 Oil on canvas, 11 x 84 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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of pure blue in front of the faint yellow of the dog must not spread out too strongly in order to remain complementary (i.e. authorised, ÂorganisedÊ).‰

The second artist and friend who was extremely important for Marc was Kandinsky, whom he met for the first time on New YearÊs Eve of 1910. Marc joined KandinskyÊs

group,

the

Munich

New

ArtistsÊ

Association (NKVM), but the two left the group already at the end of the year. They realised that they were bound by the common missionary convictions not only of the possibility, but the necessity of the contribution of art to the spiritual salvation of modern Western culture.

Little Blue Horses 1911 Oil on canvas, 61 x 101 cm Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart

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Both were influenced in this respect by their reading of the influential book Abstraction and Empathy (1908, Munich), by the art historian Wilhelm Worringer (1881-1965). They worked together on The Blue Rider Almanac, published in 1912. Comparing MarcÊs lithograph The Pair of Deer (1907) with a subsequently major picture from 1912, which also shows two deer, we can clearly see several trends. In Red Deer II (1912; Pinakothek der Moderne) Marc no longer focusses primarily on the Naturalistic illustration of deer and their movements. His vision became much more subjective; the natural theme distilled

The Large Blue Horses 1911 Oil on canvas, 105 x 181.1 cm Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

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with more strength. Random details have been abandoned in favour of a synthesis of essential elements. Unlike the naturalistic earth tones of the previous image, this is a finely balanced blend of colours. A

common

misconception

with

regard

to

Expressionism is the belief that the artist allegedly only threw emotional gestures or instinctive impulses on the canvas, something that clearly exists. Instead, some of MarcÊs works, such as Red Deer II, are the product of several years of intensive experiments, theories, and reflections on the symbolic properties of colours and their

effective

combinations.

The

colours

are

orchestrated into an interwoven composition of the

Young Boy with a Lamb 1911 Oil on canvas, 87.9 x 83.8 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

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simplified forms of animals, landscape, and floating clouds. Also, MarcÊs spiral design of the composition confers unity and, to the animals themselves, a deep elegance. Their curved necks, searching eyes, and flattened ears refer also to a sensitivity that fits in well with the surrounding forces of nature. MarcÊs and KandinskyÊs efforts with the Blue Rider were performed in the context of the ExpressionistsÊ search for „origins‰ and authenticity. In one sense, they were properties which Marc took for granted within the animal world, away from the stultifying effects of civilisation. His colour woodcut Birth of the Horses (1913) shows a cosmos in which the animals embody creative forces.

Woodcutter 1911 Oil on canvas, 140.9 x 108.9 cm Private collection

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In the summer of 1913, Marc began a significant number of large and ever more experimental works. Based on the paintings from his last decade of life we can gain a reliable idea of his art and areas of interest. We are able to appreciate what he was able to offer a viewer. The most important of these paintings was Animal Fates. In 1914, shortly before the war, he finally began to paint almost completely abstract paintings. An example is Fighting Forms. As in KandinskyÊs abstract compositions, remnants of landscape features can be encountered. The conflict mentioned in the title is a cosmic one between light and dark, that is to say, symbolic of good and evil, which meet each other in battle and explode.

Haystacks in the Snow 1911 Oil on canvas, 79.5 x 100 cm Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See

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Franz Marc was one of 700,000 men who were killed in the long, inhumane slaughter near Verdun in 1916. He was on a reconnaissance mission when he was fatally injured by shrapnel. When, in 1937,the National Socialists launched their hateful campaign against modern art as a whole, and particularly against Expressionism, they removed 130 works by Marc from public collections and showed some of them in the Degenerate Art exhibition. This led to considerable controversy, as Marc was popular amongst the public and had been killed as an

Deer in the Snow 1911 Oil on canvas, 84.7 x 84.5 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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officer in the battle for Germany. MarcÊs Red Deer II was the first to be confiscated, but was later declared to be „borderline‰ and returned in 1940 to the Munich State Gallery. Another one of his most important works, The Tower of Blue Horses, was withdrawn from the exhibition due to protests from an association of German officers. It was owned for a while by of one of the leading members of the Nazi party and commander of the German Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering (1893-1946, who had put together a collection of the „best‰ works of

The Steer 1911 Oil on canvas, 101 x 135 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

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the ones defamed by the Nazis) and was last seen in 1945 owned by the National Socialist regime. During his lifetime, Franz Marc was deemed one of the most promising German painters of his generation. His death in World War I was mourned as a great loss for the art world, and this tragedy was a traumatic experience for his surviving friends, Paul Klee (1879-1940) and Wassily Kandinsky. Another close friend from the Blue Rider circle, August Macke, had also been killed in action on one of the battlefields during World War I (1914-1918), which originally started with jubilant enthusiasm, not only in Germany.

Weasels at Play 1911 Oil on canvas, 101.9 × 67 cm Private collection

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Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) The Blue Rider emerged from a project initiated in 1911 by Kandinsky and Franz Marc, his younger colleague. They shared the desire to publish a new kind of magazine. Before the first issue was published, they rather hastily organised and assembled a group exhibition in the Munich Galerie Thannhauser (December 1911-January 1912), which came to be known as the first „Exhibition of the editors of The Blue Rider‰. It was a colourful mix of different works, including Franz Marc, August Macke, Wassily Kandinsky, and his life partner Gabriele Münter (1877-1962), who was not one of the editors, the two Frenchmen Henri Rousseau

Donkey-Frieze 1911 Oil on canvas, 81 x 50 cm Private collection

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(1844-1910) and Robert Delaunay (1885-1941), and the Austrian painter and composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). The exhibition was then displayed in Berlin, where the musician, composer, and publisher Herwarth Walden (1878-1941) lived and mainly worked as a gallery owner. Works by Paul Klee (1879-1940), the Austrian Alfred Kubin (1877-1959), Alexej von Jawlensky (1864-1941), and Marianne Brouwer (1860-1939) were added, before it was presented as the first Storm exhibition. (Note: The Storm exhibition was repeated in 2012 in the Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal with great success). The gallery opened in 1912 by Walden evolved over the course of time, and up to

Monkey-Frieze 1911 Oil on canvas, 76 x 134.5 cm Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

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around the time of the National Socialist takeover into a centre of Avant-Garde art for the whole of Europe. A second exhibition of the Blue Rider with exhibits by international artists – including the Spaniard Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and the Russian Kazimir Malevich (1879-1935) – immediately took place in March and April 1912 at the Galerie Hans Goltz. Hans Goltz was another pioneer of modern art. Not only his gallery, but also his bookshop fell victim to the restrictive measures of the National Socialists. The gallery had to be abandoned in 1934. A report of the secret state police reported on the 1st of August 1937:

Mountains 1911-1912 Oil on canvas, 130.8 x 100.9 cm San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

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„The bookstore of Hans Goltz in Munich was subject to control of the Security Service RFSS – Upper section South of Munich. Bolshevic art material was found and seized, which dated back to the Hans Goltz-Verlag, who had previously published Bolshevic art reproductions.‰

The magazine, The Blue Rider Almanac, published only one edition (1912), but is considered to be the most important document of pre-war Expressionism. Firstly, the almanac was a text and image source for artists, but as a whole, however, the almanac can be considered as a unique argument for a radical revision of art and our way to comprehend it. Looking back,

Two Horses 1911-1912 Tempera over letterpress, 14 x 21 cm Private collection

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Kandinsky described the motivation behind the Blue Rider as „... a time when matured in him the desire to create a book or a kind of almanac, in which artists were the only authors – especially painters and musicians‰, he considered the separation of the arts from each other as being ruinous, and the separation of „art‰ from the art of indigenous peoples and the art of children of the so-called ethnography, created in his opinion walls between phenomena, which for him were closely akin and often identical, their synthesis gave him no rest. The almanac contained reproductions of paintings and drawings by artists such as El Greco (1541-1614), Van Gogh, Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Picasso,

Red and Blue Horse 1912 Tempera, 26.3 x 43.3 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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the customs officer Rousseau, the Brücke colleague Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), and Erich Heckel (1883-1970). The artists of the Blue Rider as well as others were placed alongside objects and images from Japan, Africa, Latin America, and Alaska. Also included were medieval woodcuts, carvings and tapestries, Bavarian stained glass, Egyptian shadow puppets, and childrenÊs drawings. Even if we ignore the lyric and music scores in the Almanac, the volume is a cabinet of curiosities, a wealth of images, compiled in a way that suggests unexpected relationships.

Two Horses 1912 Watercolour with gouache on paper, 44.5 x 38 cm Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

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The name The Blue Rider is associated with a motif of a Kandinsky painting from his time in Munich, a rider on horseback. Also, amongst the images and objects reproduced in the almanac, a high-sitting man on horseback appears strikingly often. The blue colour was highly esteemed by both Kandinsky and Marc because they attributed a special „spiritual‰ quality to this colour. The artists who, due to their appearance in the almanac and various exhibitions in 1911 and 1912, were closely connected to the Blue Rider were numerous. Today, the term refers mainly to

The Little Blue Horse 1912 Oil on canvas, 57.5 x 73 cm Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken

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a smaller group, above all Klee, Marc, Macke, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, and Brouwer. Klee and Macke collaborated for a short time before the war, when they travelled together to Tunisia, resulting in a particularly creative friendship. The circle of the Blue Rider included some very close friends, but it was less of a „group‰ as for example in 1910 Die Brücke (The Bridge). Their styles, subjects, and theoretical concerns were quite different. The art in Wilhelmine, Germany in the late 19th century was dominated by institutions like the Academy and artistic conventions such as the emphasis on

Shepherds 1912 Oil on canvas, 100 x 135 cm Pinakothek der Moderne Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

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historical and literary subjects which were considered especially suitable for public awareness. The multi-layered mixture of realism, patriotism, and sentimentality in Anton von WernerÊs (1843-1915) The Lodging of Stage outside Paris (1894, Nationalgallerie, Berlin) is a good example of the „official‰ taste of the 1890s. The painting was bought immediately upon completion by the Nationalgallerie. It shows a group of soldiers relaxing at the sound of Robert SchumannÊs (1810-1856) The Sea outspreading Gloriously, sung by two doughboys accompanied on the piano. The background is

Three Horses 1912 Mixed media on paper, 37 x 51.8 cm Private collection, USA

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formed by a castle not far from Versailles during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871. The ostentatious masculinity – mud-crusted boots and red cheeks – and their love of German culture are intentionally contrasted with the rococo, effeminate appearance of the French civilisation of their surroundings. Werner was the director of the Berlin Academy and the most powerful figure in the world of institutional German art of his time. He was also a favourite artist of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was known for being fundamentally ultraconservative and who always openly expressed opinions on the subject of art.

The Little Yellow Horses 1912 Oil on canvas, 66 x 104 cm Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart

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Die Brücke (The Bridge) The founding fathers of the Bridge were four students of the Technical University of Dresden, who had come together in 1905, to learn, to discuss, and to work. Dissatisfied with conventional academic art training, they organised informal meetings. The urge to create something new, emanated from the core members of the Bridge group: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Erich Heckel (1883-1970), Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976), and Fritz Bleyl (1880-1966), who, however, left the group in 1907 to devote himself to architecture. In 1906, Max Pechstein (1881-1955) and the Swiss artist Cuno Amiet

Tiger 1912 Engraved wood, 19.8 × 24 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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(1868-1951) joined the group. Emil Nolde (1867-1956), a senior artist, was also invited to join the group and became a member for a short time (1906-1907), followed later by Otto Mueller (1874-1930). During the winter months, the painters met for socalled „fifteen-minute-nudes‰ in which the nude model changed pose every fifteen minutes. Nude drawings of great spontaneity beyond academic requirements were created. This way of working freed them from the academic practice of producing detailed drawings of models, in the same old stiff poses and of dusty old plaster figures or meticulously copying the Old Masters. From these nudes they developed the concept of the

The Tiger 1912 Oil on canvas, 111 x 111.5 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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naked man in nature. From 1910 onwards, the painters moved during the summer months together to the Moritzburg lakes (north of Dresden), to the North Sea resort Dangast, what is known today as Nida in Lithuania. Here they felt unbound, free from the constraints of civilisation. They painted landscapes and nudes outdoors, naked people in an unspoiled countryside. The images feature a strong, direct colour and are also based on „primitive‰ cultures, original harshness, and rigidity of form. The mode of painting is fast and eruptive, the style spontaneous and emotional. Pictorial space is generated solely from colour. The result is a spatial flattening of colour.

Girl with a Cat 1912 Oil on canvas, 71.5 x 66.5 cm On loan from a private collection Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See

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An important early statement occurred in 1906. In the catalogue of their first group exhibition, which took place in Löbtau (Dresden), the young artists proclaimed their manifesto; establishing the artists group Die Brücke like a battle cry. In a stylised, primitive-looking font, they announced:

„With a belief in development, and as a new generation of creators and connoisseurs, we hereby call together all young people. We, as young people ourselves, carry the future and want to create for ourselves freedom of action and life against the well-established power of our elders. Everyone who conveys his creative energy directly and authentically belongs to us.‰

Paradise 1912 (with August Macke) Oil on plaster, 400 x 200 cm Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Munich

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Erich Heckel was the organiser of the group. And it was also he who paid the monthly rent of 10 Mark sfor an empty butcherÊs shop as a common studio, and which is also where the first joint exhibition took place. They did everything together, shared the same models, learned new technologies together, particularly the art of woodcuts, etchings, and lithographs. In the years 1906 to 1912, they published yearly portfolios for their members, which today are valued by collectors as rarities. From the beginning, the preferred artistic medium, the woodcut, stood in the centre of the Bridge. In painting,

Two Cats, Blue and Yellow 1912 Oil on canvas, 74 x 98 cm Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel

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although there were differences between the works of the individual artists, they were often characterised by intensive, non-naturalistic colours and loose, broken brushstrokes. They manifested a vivid concern of the artistic currents in Europe at the time. The goal was not a uniformity of their expressional style, but rather „the basic ideas ... behind the events and things in the world around us‰, said Kirchner. The painters only developed the distinctive, idiosyncratic, and typical handwriting of „BridgeExpressionism‰ with its rigour, rugged linear simplicity and directness by following the knowledge gleaned from the works of Van Gogh and Cézanne. In memory

Composition with Two Deer 1912 15.7 x 11.5 cm Franz Marc Estate, Galerie Stangl, Munich

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of Paul GauguinÊs South Seas visits, Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein embarked on their own voyage to New Guinea and the Palau Islands (1913-1914). Otto Mueller, who joined the Bridge in 1910, sought the beauty of strangeness in Gypsy representations. Heckel, Kirchner, Pechstein, and Schmidt-Rottluff moved to Berlin in 1911. Each artist went his own way from that point on. The Storm gallery that belonged to the publisher and art patron Herwarth Walden, who died in a Soviet prison, became the

The Red Deer II 1912 Oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm Pinakothek der Moderne, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

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focal point of painters, and first published KirchnerÊs woodcuts. Together with Erich Heckel, Kirchner participated in the „Separate League of West German Art Lovers and Artists‰ in Cologne. KirchnerÊs first exhibition took place in 1913 at the Folkwang Museum in Hagen. However, quarrels and disagreements within the Bridge, eventually led to its dissolution, although, or because, Kirchner sought to emphasise in the Bridge history what they had in common. Despite the disbanding, the painters remained friends throughout the rest of their lives.

Deer in the Forest II 1912 Oil on canvas, 110 x 81 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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Expressionism Franz Marc was, together with the artists of the Blue Rider, one of the original Expressionists. But what did the Expressionists want, what motivated them? Here are three possible explanations resulting from the increased temporal distance to the artists. First, one suggested by author and art critic Bruno Kroll, almost forgotten today, who wrote in 1940 about Franz Marc and Expressionism:

„Franz Marc takes a second way of rejuvenation and spirituality. Like Weisgerber [(Note: A reference to Weisgerber (1878-1935), one of the founders of the

Deer in a Monastery Garden 1912 Oil on canvas, 75.7 x 101 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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New Munich Secession]), Marc is also a richly talented painter, a lyrical, inwards turned, ponderate, wise person. [...] Thanks to tentative attempts with the open-air problem, he realises the goal of his art, towards which he now thrives in an unremitting struggle for clarification and completion – the goal: to obtain the archetype from the image. Disappointed with the bustle of people, he prefers to turn to animals. [...].‰

He further wrote shortly afterwards:

„He detaches his creatures from nature-bound conception, places them into the magical effect of the abstract,

Pigs 1912 Oil on canvas, 58.1 x 83.8 cm Private collection, Switzerland

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disconnected, rhythms of line and colour, of surreal nature – melodiously moving lines and expressive dynamic colours. And the artistic desire makes itself so strongly subordinate to scientific consciousness – and this very fact reveals the alarming degree of the great spiritual and artistic crisis – that the scientific begins to operate with the momentum of artistic creativity and hinders the artists in harmoniously creating a positive philosophy of life.‰

Kroll then quotes a phrase from one of MarcÊs letters from the field: „Future art will be based on scientific convictions, it will become our religion – our truth...‰

Three Animals (Dog, Fox, and Cat) 1912 Oil on canvas, 80 x 105 cm Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim

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It was Bruno Kroll (author of titles such as German Painters of the Present. The Development of German Painting since 1900 (1937) and abstracts about the controversial historical painter Artur Kempf – awarded the eagle shield of the German Empire, bearing the the inscription „To the German painter‰ in 1939 – and Leo von König (1941), member of the German Secession, whose masterpieces include a portrait of Gerhart Hauptmann) who concentrated intensively on German paintings in the 1930s and 40s, and who was consistent with the spirit of the age, who introduced in his book German Painters of the Present the „Expressionist Error‰ chapter as follows:

Playing Dogs c. 1912 Tempera on board, 38.1 x 54.6 cm Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge (Massachusetts)

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„It was never easy for a critical and responsible person to fully appreciate the actual positive values of Expressionist art, that, as a new genre appearing since 1910, covered up Impressionism more and more visibly. Yes, it was actually quite difficult to grasp the essence of this strange revolt. The program was clearly formulated. The desired objective of Expressive art was to create art which was meant to have its truest form and deepest sense. The young Expressionists did not want an imitation of nature, which was usually still performed by the Impressionists. Hence we could title a chapter that is dedicated to Expressionism: the end of externality, or:

Cows, Yellow, Red, Green 1912 Oil on canvas, 62 x 87.5 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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the end of Naturalism. Because the real goal was beyond the natural. [...] So, we could also write: the end of the right thing. He [(Note: This refers to the young, common Expressionist artist]) wanted a value that evolved beyond nature, not so much in terms of beauty, but as an expression. Thus, one could title the chapter as follows: The end of materialism or: the end of the Picturesque.‰

Expressionism was certainly not the end of the Picturesque. The art critic Johannes Jahn (1892-1976), in contrast, describes Expressionism in a simple and concise form as:

The Monkey 1912 Oil on canvas, 70.4 x 100 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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„...The direction in the arts of the 20th century, mainly in painting and graphics, less in sculpture [...] The beginnings of Expressionism go partly back to the 1880s and were a reaction against Impressionism, Naturalism, and Academicism. [...] Also, an attempt was made to recover the elemental colour effects through simplification. Without the use of Impressionist refraction and differentiation in favour of large blocks of pure, unbroken colours. The emotional characteristics of colour were closely observed and placed in the service of the overall impact.‰

Rain 1912 Oil on canvas, 81 x 105.5 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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Dorothea Eimert began her Expressionist chapter in her standard work The Art of the 20th Century, as follows:

„Expressionism is a dazzling manifold-European Movement, to which French, German, Austrian, Russian, and American artists decisively contributed. It is a development that turned away from the representation of nature; departing to new horizons of expression and the Âinner truthÊ. Its appearance is a kaleidoscope of diverse configurations due to the great contribution of community action of the new,

The Waterfall 1912 Oil on canvas, 165 x 158 cm Private collection

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international exhibitions. Some of these exhibitions have gained epochal significance, such as the International Sonderbund exhibition in Colognein 1912, and the same year in Berlin; the Blue Rider exhibition, 1913, as well as in Berlin, the First German Autumn Salon and in the same year the Armory Show in New York.‰

In contrast to Fauvism, Expressionism developed in richly faceted ways and shaped the European and American art scene over many years. Expressionism meant lifestyle and was not limited to the artistic movement. Expressionism was more than an art

Sleeping Deer 1912-1913 Tempera, 37.8 x 44.8 cm Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zurich

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movement, it meant rebellion; a passionate rebellion of the young elite between the turn of the century and World War I. The

Expressionists

rose

up

against

cold

mechanism, against reliance on authority. Like the Fauves, they wanted to do away with the artifice and conducted active research in an attempt to learn more about the origins of human existence and they found this among primitive peoples or, rather, the so-called Primitives. Back in 1904, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner experienced a magical attraction to the Arts of Africa

Vignette ‘D’ 1913 Tempera, 16.3 x 13 cm Private collection, Munich

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and the South Pacific upon discovering them at the Dresden Museum of Ethnology. The Brücke artists focussed their interest on the spiritual aspect, on originality, on archaic expressive power. They called themselves „Primitives of a New Art‰. The increase in maximum intensity of expression was the goal, smashing the ÂnaturalÊ order. Forms were splintered, overstretched, split; colours burned in real streams. Franz Marc (1880-1916) formulated in words and pictures the „... pantheistic empathy in the tremor and troughs of blood in nature, in trees, in animals, in the air‰.

Sketch of Brenner Road 1913 Watercolour, 20 x 12.3 cm Private collection

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Today, about a good hundred years after its beginnings, there is broad consensus that Expressionism via the emotional response given by the viewer, is the immediate successor of Naturalism and Impressionism; its forms of expression in graphic arts and painting are recognised by all the other artistic movements. Its main representatives were, aside from Franz Marc and the above-mentioned members of the Blue Rider and the Bridge, the Dutch Vincent van Gogh and the Norwegian Edvard Munch (1863-1949), and these responses can of course only be a hint – the actual number of Expressionists is of course much larger.

Sitting Yellow Lady 1913 Indian ink and watercolour on paper, 14.3 × 14.7 cm Neue Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin

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„Degenerate Art‰ A text about Franz Marc can not be completed without mentioning

the

aforementioned

Degenerate

Art

exhibition, initiated by the Nazis in 1937. After the assumption of power on 30 January 1933 and the resulting exchange of key decision makers in the German government as well as in the cities and towns, began defamation and coercive measures against anyone who did not agree with the system. The fanaticism of the totalitarian rulers hit art and artists in all fields.

Two Horses in front of Red Rocks 1913 Varnished tempera postcard to Wassily Kandinsky, 14 x 9 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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In the fine arts a systematically planned and degrading iconoclasm began which culminated in the absolute control of all actions. Artists were forbidden to sell, to exhibit, and even to paint. This applied not only to Jewish artists, but also to every artist whose art did not directly serve the intentions of the party. The motto was: „Keeping German art pure.‰ The President of the Chamber of Fine Arts of the Reich, Adolf Ziegler (1892-1959), was HitlerÊs favourite painter from 1936 to 1943, designated by mockers as „HitlerÊs pubic hair painter‰ who was authorised in 1937,

The Tower of Blue Horses 1913 Oil on canvas, 200 x 130 cm Location unknown

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to search all the museums and public collections of the Reich for what he called „Degenerate Art‰ and confiscate it all. One of ZieglerÊs most dedicated accomplices was the exhibition organiser, artist, and writer Wolfgang Willrich (1897-1948). His work and diatribe Purging the Temple of Art: an Art-Political Polemic for the Return of German Art to the Spirit of Nordic Art was published as early as the beginning of 1937, thus illustrating his attitude towards modern art. In this „purge‰, Ziegler and his minions confiscated over 12,000 graphic prints and 5,000 paintings and

Landscape with a Red Animal 1913 Watercolour postcard to Alfred Kubin, 9 x 14 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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sculptures from 101 public collections, be they Abstract, Cubist, Expressionist, or Surrealist representations. The paintings included works by artists such as – amongst many others – Franz Marc, Emil Nolde, and Wassily Kandinsky, as well as works of the foreign vanguard such as Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, André Derain, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri Matisse. All these works were presented by Willrich and Ziegler in 1937 in the infamous „Degenerate Art‰ exhibition. „For this purpose, they had plundered all the major museums, namely 25 German museums,

Two Blue Horses 1913 Gouache and ink on paper, 18.1 x 13.3 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

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abducted their numerous precious and famous works of art and heaped them up in a rather unsuitable space,‰ reported by the art critic and former director of the Nationalg Galleryie in Berlin, Paul Ortwin Rave (1893-1963), in 1949 in his book Art Dictatorshizp in the Third Reich. The exhibition was opened on the 19th of July 1937. They had vacated, for this purpose, a few rooms which had previously housed the plaster cast collection of the Archaeological Institute in the old gallery building at the Hofgarten in Munich. It was intended to contrast the First German Art Exhibition event, which took place

Seated Mythical Animal 1913 Tempera on paper, 46 x 38.4 cm Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee

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just in front, in the newly built House of Art, in which the „non-degenerate ... healthy German Contemporary Art‰ was displayed. The Degenerate Art exhibition was held in the dark rooms of the Munich Hofgarten: 300 paintings, 25 sculptures, and 400 illustrations from 110 artists. Visitors amassed to a record 2,009,899 – presumably the highest number of visitors to ever attend a single art exhibition. In a modified form, the exhibit travelled to Berlin, Leipzig, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Vienna during 1937-1939. Given the large amount of confiscated art, the question arose about its further fate. The disposal

Two Animals 1913 Watercolour postcard to Wassily Kandinsky, 9 x 14 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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commission decided which works could be sold abroad at auction, and which were to be deposited, which meant they „went missing‰ or were even burned, as happened in Berlin in the courtyard of the main fire station. In unprecedented fashion, 1,004 paintings and 3,825 watercolours, drawings, graphic works, and sculptures were burned there on the 20th of March, 1939. Famous painters, such as Nolde, Kirchner, Kollwitz, and Pechstein were banned from painting. Ziegler wrote a letter to Schmidt-Rottluff, which other artists who were banned from painting had received similar forms of:

Birth of the Horses 1913 Woodcut printed in black, red, rose and green on japan paper, 21.5 x 14.6 cm The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, Los Angeles 148

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„[...] On the basis of § 10 of the First Regulation implementing the Third ReichÊs Chamber of Culture Law of 01.01.33 (RGBl.IS 797) I exclude you from the ReichÊs Chamber of Fine Arts and you are prohibited with immediate effect from carrying out any professional – even part-time – activity in the fine art fields.‰

This meant not only public defamation and profound personal insult, but also utmost material hardship. Only a few artists were able to get by in their own country, albeit poorly, and with the help of friends, others did not survive the Nazi era, and still others were deported. Otto Freundlich (1878-1943) was murdered at Majdanek

Red and Blue Horse 1913 Watercolour and collage postcard to Lily Klee, 14 x 9.2 cm Private collection of Felix Klee, Bern

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and Felix Nussbaum (1904-1944) in Auschwitz, Rudolf Levy (1875-1944) died in Italy during a prisoner transport carried out by the SS. Many artists emigrated, and only a few successfully managed an arduous new start in a foreign land. Others, who had sought refuge in European countries had to flee again after Nazi occupation and suffered bitter misery. This totalitarian attack on free spirit could only paralyse the artistic power of most of them and, after the war, their art evolved into an unusual spiritual and abstract language which artists united to adopt across all democratic countries.

Red Deer 1913 Tempera, 40.9 x 33.6 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

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Letters of Franz Marc from the field (excerpts) and some of his aphorisms Alsace / Rothaus, 1st Sept. 14, Autumn D⁄, Today I held the first watch, with 18 positions, and it was very atmospheric, a wonderfully autumnal starry night. How different is all this from boring garrison duty! The black coffee now in the canteen renders good service. I make it last as long as possible. The area is badly affected by the battles. [...] I see no danger, but everything is obviously very intimidating.

Red Deer and Yellow Antelope 1913 Watercolour postcard to Alfred Kubin, 14 x 9 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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Expected direction: Sâles, but we are still awaiting orders. I feel so completely at ease that I do not fear the coming hardships. Army bread from the field army bread bakeries is the only food we get. I ask for nothing else and I save my reserve stocks, which I bought in Munich, for much later times, who knows where we will be moved to, I still hope itÊs going to be Belfort via Epinal. Greetings to both NÊs.

Six Monkeys 1913 Mixed media and collage postcard to Paul Klee, 14 x 9.2 cm Private collection of Felix Klee, Bern

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In Sâles, 2nd Sept. Afternoon Dear Ones in Ried, Today I made my first big reporting ride (30 km), I am happy now, it is what I wanted, namely to be something like an Adjudant of a whole convoy, together with Lieutenant Hackl (who is the government architect in W. and who knows Sindelsdorf very well)! We rode into France up to Remomeix (before Dié), where, in front of us, a huge fire line was bombarded by German foot artillery which shoots from a hill to the west, and even by French batteries standing behind the mountain. On the military road to Sâles – Dié, an incredible warfare, and I feel so good,

Little Horse in Dusky Pink 1913 Watercolour postcard to Lisbeth and August Macke, 9 x 14 cm Private collection

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as if I had always been a soldier; we steal fruit from the trees; and we got wine on our ride, too; in Sâles there is nothing left. We had to ride with messages for the brigade headquarters. Now, in the afternoon, I sit calmly in the telephone office (installed in a hotel of the Classicist style) on the market place, in order to receive commands that may come in. They called me to enter the office. So I can leisurely take a few hours of rest and watch the quaint goings-on in the marketplace in Sâles, it is „WallensteinÊs Camp‰, but in real life. Our way forwards depends on the commands that I have to

Two Horses in front of a Blue Mountain 1913 Mixed media and collage postcard to Lily Klee, 14 x 9.2 cm Private collection of Felix Klee, Bern

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receive over the phone. We do our own cooking out in the fields where we bivouacked. Keep note of what you must send me for the time being. La Croix aux Mines near Lavaline, 6 Sept. 14 Yesterday, I was ordered to go and get instructions from the Division Headquaters and could finally, at 3:30, get some sleep in an open meadow, wrapped in my big coat, the rain cape under me. At 4:30 I woke up: this now occurs rather often. The body gets especially used to making the best out of a short, completely dreamless sleep. During service we learn this type of energy balance.

Red Horse and Yellow Cattle 1913 Watercolour and collage postcard to Alfred Kubin, 14 x 9.2 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

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Today we went back into attack position. The French have actually retreated again a little; our position is regarded as the toughest throughout the war. The Germans are progressing very, very slowly, with terrible losses, but it works! The smell of corpses within many kilometres is horrifying. It is worse for me than the sight of dead men and horses. These artillery battles have something unspeakably imposing and mystical about them. I am physically very well, the red wine holds my stomach together. Rheumatism I no longer know.

Black Cow behind a Tree 1913 Tempera and collage postcard to Elisabeth Macke, 14 x 9 cm Private collection, Dr Erhard Kracht, Northern Europe

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Hageville 11th, XI 14 Dear Mama, Autumn is slowly making its way over here, and days are getting gradually colder and chilly. We sit slightly ashamed in our cosy quarters, when we think of our brothers-in-arms on the frontline, in the trenches and artillery emplacements. The only consolation is that they are the victors, albeit progress is too slow, so the ring locks up around the hostile army closer and closer, pressing all the more; at least, we donÊt rush so madly forward here like in the Vosges and not as insanely as in August and September in order to preserve good human manpower, if possible.

Resting Animal 1913 Mixed media and collage postcard to Lily Klee, 14 x 9.2 cm Private collection of Felix Klee, Bern

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This war will soon cast its terrible spell all over Asia, Persia, and China; they will be swept along hopelessly and I do not think America can avoid entering into the fight until the end. This world conflagration is probably the most horrible moment of world history. [...]. Hageville 16th, XI 14 D⁄, [...]. How do I live? The column has 3 „trains‰ with three cars. As a sergeant, I am assigned to the 3rd Platoon leader (sergeant) without special function, because IÊm a column despatch rider. I live

Green and White Horse 1913 Tempera postcard to Elisabeth Macke, 14 x 9 cm Private collection, Professor Dr Erdmann

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with a very nice man, the city gardener named Stephan (who absolutely wants to visit us after the war, and give us advice for the garden) and two corporals in a room. I alone have a decent bed, the other three sleep on a bed of hay, which we have incorporated into the room. [...] 5th December 14 D. M., [...] Tonight IÊm going to play St Nicholas and frighten French children with my big fur coat and long beard. I already have a small bag of nuts, etc. How many more sorts of madcap situations can one can get in?

Dead Deer 1913 Watercolour, 16.3 x 13 cm Foundation Etta and Otto Stangl Franz Marc Museum, Kochel am See

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Such things are not really my cup of tea, but since no one else can speak French, IÊve gladly accepted. Hageville can, in any case, not complain about the German soldiers! [⁄] Hageville 11th December 14 D⁄, Today we unexpectedly had an alert. The division is moving out to secure a challenged position at Pont-aMousson (south of Metz, Lothring, border area). There, the French break through again and again with larger groups, (as recently reported in the official reports).

Small Composition I 1913 Oil on canvas, 46.5 x 41.5 cm Private collection, Switzerland

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But we should soon be back in our Hageville quaters after this expedition and I – as a superviser and person in charge of the cantonment – have to remain here with two men! Lieutenant O., who is always very nice to me and considers my health far more vulnerable than it really is, got me this job, I could probably have turned it down, had I been very reluctant, but according to my principles here in war, take everything just the way it comes, I agreed right away and I thought of you. [...] In recent days, battle is again very violent, the gunfire shakes and rattles the windows incessantly.

Saint Julian l’Hospitalier 1913 Gouache with ink and gold on paper, 45.7 x 40 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

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I wonder what will happen to our Christmas post? It is likely to lie around until everybody is back in Hageville! Merry Christmas! Mühlhausen 22, XII 14 D⁄, [...]. It really makes me happy that you received my ideas so well, IÊm working on the third article now, and there are a lot of difficulties, it is very challenging for me, and hopefully you will like it, too. It is pretty much the flip side of the coin which I had shaped in the previous article. IÊm afraid that my thoughts may be regarded as being nice and good, albeit a utopian explanation;

Blue Horse with Rainbow 1913 Watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper, 16.5 x 26 cm John S. Newberry Collection, The Museum of Modern Art New York

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this objection I will fight most passionately against. The realisation of my vision of the future which I will only be able to test out in pictures (but I hope from the bottom of my heart that someone will come who will substantiate it in literature and philosophy and morals), at least for a small circle of people, this small circle would prove more than if the ponderous mass started moving. I dare not even think about it. [⁄] Bertsch Weiler (south Gebweiler), 27 December 14 D., I feel quite happy to be slightly back in the hubbub of the war. I am physically so rested and fresh

Reclining Bull 1913 Tempera on paper, 40 x 46 cm Museum Folkwang, Essen

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that I do not fear the strains, and so many more men and horses are much better protected, as in those days in the Vosges, where in the initial days of war, because of enthusiasm and inexperience in warfare, a lot of mistakes were made. [...] The struggles of infantrymen, as I witnessed yesterday, are admittedly more horrible than I have ever seen before. Last night, I was quite shocked, the courage with which they operate and the indifference and even joy of death and wounds is somehow mystical, the athmosphere is of course the reconciling factor, the explanation inexplicable to the ordinary intellect. Our artillery fires brilliantly now,

The Unfortunate Land of Tirol 1913 Oil on canvas, 131.1 x 200 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

180

181

much better than at the beginning. Last night we had to stay in Wattweiler, wherefrom we shot. I had already spent two nights with almost no sleep and I had fixed up a nice hay stack and soon slept like a rock, when as early as eleven oÊclock an alert was triggered and we immediately moved away as heavy artillery began to bombard the place. [...]. 2nd Jan. 15 D., Unlike yesterday, today is a horrible rainy day, itÊs so foggy that shooting is inconceivable. Instead, yesterday

at

lunchtime

and

in

the

afternoon

Four Foxes 1913 Watercolour postcard to Wassily Kandinsky, 14 x 9 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

182

183

there was such a terrible cannonade, as I had never heard up to now, everyone was shaking and yelling. Many villages burned. ItÊs too strange a war; there can be no question about a systematic attempt of breakthroughs made by the French. Most of the time we let the French begin, as soon as the first grenade „greeting‰ comes over, we acknowledge it in the same way. Then follows one duel after another until one or the other suddenly loses patience and „wants tranquility‰ and who, after an inquiry about the enemyÊs position through the previous single shots, will act with insane

Foxes 1913 Oil on canvas, 87 x 65 cm Kunstmuseum, Dusseldorf

184

185

volleys of shots; in actual fact it is really important who ultimately begins these volleys. If the shots went well, the enemy becomes silent in order not to betray his position any further. Yesterday we were supposed to have destroyed two French mountain guns. As „punishment‰ the French set Sennheim on fire. We returned the favour by shooting and setting Thann on fire. [...] 7th Jan. 15, evening D., Finally I can send you Article II, and IÊm as uncertain in its assessment as I was for the first one.

Animal Fates (The Trees Showed their Rings, the Animals their Arteries) 1913 Oil on canvas, 194.7 x 263.5 cm Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel

186

187

It contains a lot of information, I feel in some places too much, and yet I was not able to not change it. [...] Before the war, all these thoughts were not „thinkable‰, probably they would not even exist. [...] 20 Feb. 15 D., now the 100 aphorisms are written. It was ultimately faster than I thought, as I had some very quiet afternoons. I have briefly read them over again and was sometimes startled by the difficulties they present to the reader. Printed, they will be much more accessible, of course, I work in my room (they are written for

The Mandrill 1913 Oil on canvas, 91 x 131 cm Pinakothek der Moderne Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

188

189

four-fifths in F. in a small room, a photograph, which was taken from outside, the door on the right of the window, I enclose, which was too small for a table and thus I could only write on the knee!), the notebook dates back to H[ageville]! Take plenty of time with the clean copy, donÊt make too much effort. The whole thing is so compact and the individual thoughts usually so thickset that one has to read each word carefully to comprehend its full meaning [...]

Aphorism I Everything has its surface and its core, its appearance and its essence, mask and truth. All we are doing is

Fabulous Beast II (Horse) 1913 Tempera on cardboard, 26.5 x 30.5 cm Private collection

190

191

fumbling around the surface without ever getting to the core, we live in the light instead of understanding the essence of things, the mask of things blinds us so much that we cannot find the truth – what does that say about the inner determination of things? 17th III 15 D., [⁄] Koehler wrote to me today on a „Sturm‰ postcard of my Animal Fates. At the sight of it, I was very concerned and upset. It is like a premonition of this war, horrible and poignant, and I can hardly imagine that I painted that! In the blurry photograph, it seems true,

Painting with Cattle 1913 Oil on canvas, 92 x 130.8 cm Pinakothek der Moderne Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

192

193

and in any case so inconceivable that I found it rather frightening. It obeys an artistic logic to paint such pictures before the war, not as a stupid afterthought of the war. We have to create paintings of the future, not recollections, as is in line with our times. I have nothing else in my mindÊs eye. [...] Everything stacks up inside me causing a painful fatigue in my head, but now IÊm starting to quietly draw in the sketchbook. I am relieved and recovering. Frz

Fairy Animals I 1913 Tempera on paper, 25.5 x 32 cm Private collection

194

195

12.4.15 D⁄, The more thoroughly and more often I read your last letters, the more compelling their inner artistic logic seems. In the aphorisms, I touch the truth on all sides without ever getting to the nitty-gritty, the „essence‰, it means a complete reversal, like in the sense defined by the parable of the young rich ruler; only if that is fully accomplished, can I check whether or not the feelings that continue are valuable enough to also mean something to others. For the vast majority, that will not be the case, their works would be totally unattractive, or more explicitly: they would stop painting all together.

The First Animals 1913 Tempera, 39 x 46.5 cm Private collection

196

197

[⁄] By this noble measure, very little European art will survive. The developmental spirit of the modern centuries was all too averse for the art we dreamt of. „Art is very rarely present.‰ [...]

Aphorism 24 Appearances of things are deceptive, and so are words. One who wants to draw knowledge from words must not sit on them, but between them, behind them, and grope his way in search of truth; for even words are foreground images and subjective in everyday appearances.

Sleeping Animals 1913 Tempera, 43.8 x 38.7 cm Private collection

198

199

Here, too, applies our basic idea: the one hundred steps of cognition, of seeing through, of penetrating the meaning of things. Science elevated us to the second stage of knowledge and everything will follow. Art is the second face of things, poetry is hearing the second sound of the words, and thinking is to recognise the second sense of the events. 30th VII 15 D., [⁄] The village where we are now is called Haumont, situated on the ponds of La Chassée, an hour

Dreaming Horse c. 1913 Oil on canvas, 39.4 x 46.3 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

200

201

from Hageville, between Hageville and St Benoit. We currently have to carry out pure tillage, but we are of course a little farther back behind the front line, between two air stations. Throughout the day the planes are buzzing around us and there is constantly something going on in the air. And when there are no planes, vultures, hawks, and falcons sway over fields and marshes. [...] I do not like to talk about politics anymore. The war takes its course, no one can change it today or shorten or lengthen it. Not even America. It seems evident to me that everything which is

Wild Pigs (Boar and Sow) 1913 Oil on cardboard, 73 x 57.5 cm Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne

202

203

happening now has a solid internal logic, the Socialists can use it as a terrible lever against the „rulers‰. Everything that happens today, the people will never forget; the basis for the greatest movement of the Fourth Order is now ready, but it does not really excite me. The arts take a different path to eternal life. I canÊt focus at all today, everything seems dim and somewhat befuddled. I desire nothing more than to return home. [...] I greet you all with affection. Your Frz.

The Wolves (Balkan War) 1913 Oil on canvas, 70.8 x 139.7 cm Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo

204

205

30th IX 15 D., [...] My promotion seems quite certain, I had to approve in writing, together with two (SchulteStrathaus, and Böcklein), and in addition, the two had to undertake reserve officer positions in addition to three exercises each lasting eight weeks, I am acting as an officer in the territorial forces and also have to execute exercises for up to eight weeks; ⁄ Whether we are going to be officerÊs deputies, we ourselves do not know. [...]

The Bewitched Mill 1913 Oil on canvas, 130.2 x 90.8 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

206

207

The attacks no longer frighten me and they can shoot our positions here and there to rubble and ruin, forcing us to retreat, but they cannot throw us out, and terrible losses are always on both sides. [...] Enclosed are, again, some reviews. The Frankfurter Zeitung published a long article about me today. If only all of this would stop. It appears so pointless to me and everything seems so stupid and wrong, even the images themselves, I canÊt even imagine the good ones any longer. Keep all of these notes. Walden does not need them, I think, or throw them all away. – [...]

Long Yellow Horse 1913 Oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm Nassau County Museum of Art, New York

208

209

Aphorism 25 We will live in the 20th century between unfamiliar faces, new images, and incredible sounds. Many who do not have the inner fervour will freeze and feel nothing but a chill only to take refuge in the ruins of their memories. Woe to the demagogues who want to pull them out of it. Everything has its own time, and the world has its time. 1st October 15 D., [...] I wrote to you yesterday, that I have suddenly been promoted to warrant officer. It will be followed in

Deer in the Forest I 1913 Oil on canvas, 100.9 x 104.7 cm The Philipps Collection Washington Bequest of Katherine S. Dreier

210

211

a few weeks by a promotion to lieutenant. Today was the official officer election; the ministerial confirmation takes no longer than four weeks. The most agreeable for all is that I stay with the convoy, I do not need to take an exam, nor submit references. (This may perhaps be due to the fact that I once mentioned that your relatives were killed as officers). [...] In the west, we think and hope to slowly regain the upper hand. One generally feels very relieved that the offensive has finally broken – the hope that it decides

Gazelles 1913 Gouache on paper, 55.5 x 71 cm Private collection, Krefeld

212

213

the outcome of the war has once again become very much alive. The level of bloodshed on both sides is terrible, but no one sees another way out of it – the individual of course, but not the group as a whole, since it is a responsibility that no one can take to say: letÊs stop everything overnight and allow the French and Russians to invade our country. [...] Stay healthy and remember me cheerfully and think of me and our future. Your Frz.

Reddish Animal 1913-1914 Tempera, 22 x 16.5 cm Franz Marc Estate, Galerie Stangl, Munich

214

215

Aphorism 26 Nietzsche has laid a huge mine, the idea of the will to power. It detonated terribly in the great war. With its end, the tension of that idea will have its end. Every thought has only its given amplitude and tensioning force, but like every power it changes according to the law of energy into a new one. From the will to power the will to form will emerge. 13th X 15 D., [...] In these days, I believe, the ultimate turnaround takes place, – the end of the war is approaching quickly,

House in Abstract Landscape 1913-1914 Pencil, watercolour and gouache, 15.2 x 12.2 cm Franz Marc Estate, Galerie Stangl, Munich

216

I can now see it ahead. I am all of a sudden looking to the future with optimism again. [...] I now believe it likely that we will see the end in spring 1916, if not even a little earlier. The helplessness of the Allies on the strategic chessboard is too obvious. [...] New Year 16! D., happy and good new year! So today, we already run around with the new face of 1916! The world has enriched its history going back thousands of years by the bloodiest year of its thousands of years of existence. It is terrible to remember,

Coloured Flowers 1913-1914 Tempera over pencil, 20.3 cm x 16.2 cm The San Diego Museum of Art San Diego

218

and all this for nothing, for the sake of a misunderstanding, for the lack of making ourselves humanly understandable to one another! And such a thing in Europe! We really have to re-learn, re-think everything in order to cope with this monstrous psychology of action and not only hate it, insult and mock it, or to weep over it, but also to understand the basic cause of it and form counter-thoughts about it. [...]

Aphorism 30 Art is rarely there. In the long intervals of history in which art was not there, the title is given to

The White Dog c. 1913-1914 Oil on canvas, 62.5 x 105 cm Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main

220

221

something different, similar, or quite dissimilar. Perhaps there is some need, but where this utility claims art, we actually have no art left, no more will for form. 2nd February 16 D., I am quite happy about WÊs message that he was able to once again sell something, the new sheep image and two woodcuts. To ensure that you have enough money for the immediate future, I will send you another 100 Marks in the next few days; to simplify matters, I will send it directly to Mama, so that no problems arise with the reception of the money [...]

Stable 1913-1914 Oil on canvas, 73.6 x 157.5 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

222

223

I consider the war as a healing process, just as any (even the most deadly) disease, it has of course no other meaning and I do not want to attack the war as such and eradicate it, but its root causes. [...] We must not turn our thoughts against the war, but rather against ourselves, and begin immediately. Nothing is more selfevident, more criminal, than this war. Nobody sees it – at least, nobody wants to in themselves.

Aphorism 33 „In the beginning there was the Word.‰ Before the form there always was the idea. Before the Gothic became a style, it already existed as a truth,

The Little Mountain Goats 1913-1914 Oil on canvas, 60.5 x 45 cm St Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis

224

225

the fiery thoughts as a sacred knowledge, the hierarchy of saints who received in the the Gothic pillar-cathedral its highest form and formula in profound thoughts. 6th II 16 D., if you had seen me today, you would surely soon have despaired of the „reality‰, or my sanity. I stood in a huge hay loft (nice studio!) and I have painted on military tents according to little WalterchenÊs expression „9 KandinskyÊs‰! The whole thing is, however, harmless – the „art‰ in this activity was fortunately off, at least as the others were convinced of it –

Deer in the Forest II 1913-1914 Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 100 cm Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe

226

I, myself, had some strange feelings in doing so. The story has a very useful purpose: making gun emplacements untraceable for aerial view and aerial photography by covering them with tarpaulins that are painted as a coarse pointilistic system, while taking the colourful surroundngs of nature into account for the experience (mimicry).

Aphorism 34 The European still crosses his new country blind and deaf. His feet are dull, so that he does not feel the rock on which he stands, the truth beneath him, or the focus of his time.

Small Mythical Creature 1914 Tempera, 16.4 x 25.2 cm Private collection

228

229

He still believes himself to be in the unground rubble and sand of the past and stirs in it like a child – such is the European, the steely, wide-eyed, world-knowing European with a desperately poor, thirsting heart, the new Gothic master without Dome and Bible, without image and form, the new amorphous European thinking. 7th II 16 D., [...] You said something very true: Berlin is a true centre of an epidemic of Vaterlandsbazillen [traitors to our homeland]. A third winter campaign? No way!

Broken Forms 1914 Oil on canvas, 112 x 84.5 cm Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

230

231

Aphorism 39 A creative man honours the past by the fact that he leaves it alone and does not dwell on it. The tragedy of our ancestors is that they would like to transform venerable dust into gold like the alchemists. They lost their „fortune‰ here. They ransacked so many cultures that they lost the naïve ability to create a culture of their own. 17th II 16 Dear Mama, I really understand when you speak so calmly about death, as if it is something that does not scare you. I feel the same way. In this war, we can test

Small Composition II (House with Trees) 1914 Oil on canvas, 59.5 × 46 cm Sprengel Museum, Hannover

232

233

it ourseves – an opportunity that life rarely offers otherwise, because in daily life we usually do not see the mortal threats or, at the very least, we do not believe them. It never occurred to me to seek danger and death in the war as I have done in previous years, in those days, death dodged me; that time is long gone! Today, I would welcome him very sadly and bitterly, not out of outright fear or anxiety – nothing is more soothing than the prospect of the rest that comes in death – but because I have a half-finished work to complete

Small Composition III c. 1914 Oil on canvas, 46.5 x 58 cm Osthaus-Museum Hagen, Hagen

234

235

and to accomplish that fills all my thinking. In my unpainted pictures lies all of my will to live. Otherwise, however, there is nothing terrifying about death, it is the overall fate, shared by everybody and brings us back into the normal „being‰. [...]

Aphorism 54 The age-old belief in colour will increase due to desensualisation and overcome substance in ecstatic fervour and sincerity, just like in the old days, when there was a belief in God because of the denial of idols.

The Birds 1914 Oil on canvas, 110 x 100 cm Städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

236

237

Colour will be liberated from the substantial, leading it to an immanent life in accordance with our will. 27th II 16 D., now we are in the middle of the most monstrous of all war days. All of the French lines are broken through. No human being can grasp or imagine the insane rage and violence of the Germans who rushed forward who had not gone through it. We are essentially tracking troops. The poor horses! Naturally, this moment eventually had to come, in which everything is deployed, but that it was possible (and it will certainly continue

Tyrol 1914 Oil on canvas, 135.7 x 144.5 cm Pinakothek der Moderne Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

238

239

even further) and precisely at the strongest point of the double front: Verdun – that was really unexpected, that is the unbelievable part about it. [...] Frz

Aphorism 99 The future always bears out the creators. The creators will always bear out the future, but not the present, for it is always already the past. They do not overthrow the past with impious hands, but rather with solemn works, and their presence is never right.

Fighting Forms 1914 Oil on canvas, 91 x 131.5 cm Pinakothek der Moderne Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

240

241

2nd III 16 D., [...] WeÊre probably, just like you, feverishly awaiting the outcome of this gigantic struggle, that words never will be able to describe. I do not doubt for a minute the surrender of Verdun and the subsequent collapse into the heart of the country, probably from a different location. [...] Frz

Aphorism 100 We live in a hard time, Tough are our thoughts – Everything has to become even harder.

Animals in a Landscape 1914 Oil on canvas, 110.2 x 99.7 cm Gift of Robert H. Tannahill Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit

242

4th III 16 D., [...] Oh yes, this year I will come back home to my dear undamaged home, to you, and to my work. Amongst the endless horrible images of destruction, amongst which I now live, this homecoming idea has a halo that is too sweet to describe. Take care of my home and yourself, your soul and your body, and everything that pertains to me, everything that belongs to me! Currently, we camp with the column in a completely devastated castle estate, where the former French front line was located. As a bed, I have taken a rabbit hutch turned on its back, filled it with hay, torn off the grid, and placed it in a rainproof room. Of course,

Creation I 1914 Woodcut, 23.8 x 20 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

244

I have enough blankets and pillows, so that I can sleep rather well inside. Do not worry, I can easily come through it, including my health. I feel well and take care of myself. Thanks a lot, many times for your kind birthday letter! Frz On the same day at four oÊclock in the afternoon Franz Marc was killed. Shortly before his death, Marc wrote: How lovely, how comforting it is to know that the spirit cannot die: under no pain, through no denials, in no deserts. Knowing this makes departing easy.

Creation II 1914 Woodcut, 23.7 x 20 cm Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich

246

Index A Animal Fates (The Trees Showed their Rings, the Animals their Arteries)

187

Animals in a Landscape

243

B Bathing Girls

43

The Bewitched Mill

207

The Birds

237

Birth of the Horses

149

Black Cow behind a Tree

165

Blue-Black Fox

55

Blue Horse I

59

Blue Horse with Rainbow

177

Broken Forms

231

C Cats Coloured Flowers 248

39 219

Composition with Two Deer Cottage on the Dachau Marsh

107 11

Cows, Yellow, Red, Green

121

Creation I

245

Creation II

247

D Dead Deer

171

The Dead Sparrow

17

Deer at Dusk

37

Deer in a Monastery Garden

113

Deer in the Forest I

211

Deer in the Forest II

111, 227

Deer in the Snow

72

Donkey-Frieze

77

Dreaming Horse

201 249

F Fabulous Beast II (Horse)

191

Fairy Animals I

195

Fighting Forms

241

The First Animals

197

Four Foxes

183

Foxes

185

G Gazelles

213

Girl with a Cat

101

Grazing Horses I

47

Grazing Horses II

49

Grazing Horses IV

51

Green and White Horse

169

H Haystacks in the Snow

69

Horse in a Landscape

53

House in Abstract Landscape 250

217

I/J Indersdorf

13

Jumping Dog „Schlick‰

25

L Landscape with a Red Animal

141

Larch Sapling

29

The Large Blue Horses

63

Large Lenggries Horse Painting I

27

The Little Blue Horse

89

Little Blue Horses

61

Little Horse in Dusky Pink

159

The Little Mountain Goats

225

The Little Yellow Horses Long Yellow Horse

95 209

M The Mandrill

189

The Monkey

123 251

Monkey-Frieze

79

Mountains

81

N Nude with Cat

45

O Oak Tree

35

P Painting with Cattle

193

Paradise

103

Pigs

115

Playing Dogs

119

Portrait of Franz Marc, August Macke

7

Portrait of the ArtistÊs Mother

9

R Rain

125

Reclining Bull

179

252

Red and Blue Horse

85, 151

Red Deer

153

Red Deer and Yellow Antelope

155

The Red Deer II

109

Red Horse and Yellow Cattle

163

Reddish Animal

215

Resting Animal

167

S Saint Julian lÊHospitalier

175

Seated Mythical Animal

145

Sheaves of Grain

23

Shepherdess with her Sheep

31

Shepherds

91

Siberian Sheepdogs (Siberian Dogs in the Snow)

41

Sitting Yellow Lady

135

Six Monkeys

157

Sketch of Brenner Road

133

Sleeping Animals

199

Sleeping Deer

129 253

Small Composition I

173

Small Composition II (House with Trees)

233

Small Composition III

235

Small Horse Study II

15

Small Mythical Creature

229

Stable

223

The Steer

73

Study of a Horse

33

T Three Animals (Dog, Fox, and Cat)

117

Three Horses

93

Tiger

97

The Tiger

99

The Tower of Blue Horses

139

Two Animals

147

Two Blue Horses

143

Two Cats, Blue and Yellow

105

Two Horses Two Horses in front of a Blue Mountain 254

83, 87 161

Two Horses in front of Red Rocks Two Women on the Hillside Tyrol

137 19 239

U/V The Unfortunate Land of Tirol

181

Vignette ÂDÊ

131

W The Waterfall

127

Weasels at Play

75

The White Dog

221

Wild Pigs (Boar and Sow)

203

The Wolves (Balkan War)

205

Woman in the Wind by the Sea

21

Woodcutter

67

Y Yellow Cow

57

Young Boy with a Lamb

65 255