Franz Marc (February 8, 1880 (18800208), Munich, Germany - March 4, 1916, Verdun, France) - German painter, a prominent representative of German expressionism. Along with August Macke, Wassily Kandinsky and others, he was a participant and main organizer artistic association"Blue Rider"
Born in Munich, in the family of professional landscape painter Wilhelm Mark (1839-1907). In 1900 he began his studies at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied until 1903 with Gabriel von Hackl and Wilhelm von Dietz.
Marc visited Paris twice (in 1903 and 1907), where he became acquainted with French Post-Impressionism and, in particular, with the painting of Gauguin and Van Gogh, who had a significant influence on him. After his second trip to Paris, the artist began to seriously study the anatomy of animals in order to more fully embody his vision of nature in painting.
In January 1910, Mark met August Macke for the first time, and in September of the same year he joined the “New Munich Art Association” (German: Neue Künstlervereinigung München). Despite this, he met with the leader of the association - Russian abstractionist Wassily Kandinsky - only in February 1911. Already in December, together with Macke and Kandinsky, Mark broke away from the “New Munich Art Association” and organized his own group “Blue Rider”.
Some of his paintings were shown from December 1911 to January 1912 at the first Blue Rider exhibition at the Tanhauser Gallery in Munich, which became a front for German Expressionism. In addition, Mark takes part in the work on the anthology of his art group. In 1912, he met Robert Delaunay, whose style, along with Italian Futurism and Cubism, became the next source of inspiration for the artist. Over time, Mark's painting becomes more and more abstract, torn and blocky ( shining example- one of his most famous paintings called “The Fate of Animals” (German: Tierschicksale, 1913).
With the outbreak of World War I, Franz Marc volunteered to go to the front and, already disillusioned with this world war, was killed by a shell fragment during the Verdun operation at the age of 36, having never fully realized his creative plans.
Mark's mature paintings often depict animals in natural settings (deer, horses, foxes, etc.), which, in comparison with man, who seemed ugly to the artist, were presented as higher, pure beings. Later works The brand is characterized by a bright palette combined with cubist images, sharp and harsh color transitions, sometimes creating an alarming and apocalyptic mood. Such works include the painting “The Fate of Animals”, which gained the greatest fame and is now shown in art museum Basel, Switzerland.
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German expressionists are a bright, emotional and expressive spot in world art. And Franz Marc is one of them, and also, together with August Macke and Wassily Kandinsky, a participant and co-founder of the artistic association of German expressionists “The Blue Rider”. Considering people ugly, he painted animals.
portrait of Franz Marc by August Macke
Born on February 8, 1880 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. His father was a professional landscape painter. In 1899, young Franz enters the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Munich, but after serving in the army he does not return there, but goes to study at the Munich Academy of Arts, where his teachers were academic artists Wilhelm von Dietz and Gabriel von Hackl.
But the traditional, naturalistic vision of the world around us was not impressive Franz Marc, especially after creative visits to Paris and acquaintance with post-impressionism, the works of Gauguin, Cezanne and Van Gogh. Looking for own style the young artist even turns to the anatomy of animals, dissects them and tries to understand their essence.
Franz Mark. "Dog". 1908
Franz Mark. "Elephant". 1909
The first decade of the new century marks the birth of expressionism Franz Marc. The animals in his paintings are red, blue, yellow and green, and the background landscapes are very conventional.
Franz Mark. "Roe deer in the reeds." 1909
At the same time, he met August Macke, and also joined the “New Munich Association,” whose leader was the Russian abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky. And after a year or a little more, all three - Mark, Macke and Kandinsky - leave the Association and create their own art group"Blue Rider"
Franz Mark. "Blue horse" 1911
The group owes its name to Kandinsky and Mark. They both loved Blue colour, Mark - horses, and Kandinsky - racing.
The first exhibition of the "Blue Rider" and Franz Marc, in particular, took place from December 1911 to January 1912 at the Taunghausen gallery in Munich, where works of this new movement were subsequently often exhibited.
Franz Mark. "Bull". 1911
Favorite plot Franz Marc there were animals - horses, deer, foxes. According to the artist, they are a miracle of nature, in contrast to man, whom Mark considered an ugly creature.
Franz Mark. "Boy with Lamb" 1911
In mature works Franz Marc Along with animalistic motifs, disturbing notes appear - cubist images, sharp color transitions, hard lines. An example is his painting “The Fate of Animals” from 1913.
Franz Mark. "The Fates of Animals" 1913
As soon as the First began World War, the innovative artist threw down his brush and went to war. But his inner creator soon became disillusioned, realizing the destructive nature of war. In 1916, during the Verdun operation in France Farnz Mark was killed by a shell fragment at the age of 36. Many animals remained undrawn by him.
Franz Mark. "Pigs." 1913
Franz Mark. "Four Foxes" 1913
Franz Mark. "Cat"
Franz Mark. "Red Deer". 1912
Franz Mark. "Foxes". 1913
Franz Mark. "Yellow Horse" 1913
Franz Mark. "Dead Deer" 1913
Franz Mark. "Dog"
Franz Mark. "Tiger". 1912
Franz Mark. "Two horses." 1912
Prepared Yulia Sidimyantseva
Artist Franz Marc - friend and like-minded person
Wassily Kandinsky, "Blue Rider"
German expressionism.
“My age, my beast,
who can
Look into your pupils
And with his blood he will glue
Two centuries of vertebrae?
These lines by Osip Mandelstam are like an epigraph to the work, and indeed to the entire life, of Franz Marc. The turn of the century divided the short life of the German artist almost in half: he was born in 1880, and died in 1916 at the front, in the battle of Verdun. Franz Marc was among those masters who glued the vertebrae of two centuries together with the blood of their creativity: the path from the post-impressionist painting that ended the 19th century to the abstract art of the 20th century went through expressionism, and Marc was its key figure. He was one of the Europeans who seemed not to notice the demarcation of countries on the eve of the First World War: together with Wassily Kandinsky, Mark became the founder of the legendary association “Blue Rider” - creative union Russians and German artists. Franz Marc was devoted to one topic: he drew and painted animals. Looking into the pupils of the beast, beautiful and free, he looked for answers to the questions of his time and to eternal questions of all times. Simple stories his works seem idyllic: beautiful animals living among virgin nature. But the closer the war was, which broke the backbone of the century, the more clearly one felt the melancholy in the eyes of his animals and the doom in the bends of their bodies.
Franz Mark. Red deer. 1912 G.
Franz Marc's life was developing quite well: he did not know such troubles that darkened the existence of many artists, such as misunderstanding of loved ones, lack of recognition, loneliness, and poverty. He was born in Munich, which at that time was one of cultural capitals Europe, in an intelligent family of hereditary lawyers. Franz's father - Wilhelm Mark - cheated family tradition and became an artist. His landscapes and genre paintings enjoyed success in their time; on one of them we see fifteen-year-old Franz making something out of wood.
Wilhelm Mark. Portrait of Franz Marc. 1895
Having received an excellent gymnasium education, Franz planned to study theology at the University of Munich. For a thoughtful, sensitive young man it seemed a good choice, but after passing military service he changed his plans, deciding to become an artist. From 1900 to 1903, Mark was a diligent student of the Munich Academy of Arts, until he came to Paris and saw with his own eyes the paintings of Manet and Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh. After fresh Parisian impressions, the stagnant academic atmosphere became unbearable for Mark. After leaving the walls of the academy, he rented a workshop in the Munich quarter of Schwabing and began working independently.
Schwabing was the center of bohemian life, where exciting acquaintances were quickly made. Mark experienced a stormy affair that led him to depression with a married lady, artist Anette von Eckardt, and found himself in a painful situation. love triangle, torn between two Marias, also artists - Maria Shnyur and Maria Frank. He married the beautiful and independent Maria Shnyur in 1907, but almost immediately realized his mistake. This marriage, which soon became formal, did not allow him to legitimize his relationship with Maria Frank until 1911. Outwardly, they did not seem to be a very suitable couple - Franz, a sophisticated intellectual with noble features, and the round-faced Maria with a rough peasant face. But it was she, warm-hearted and open, who became the woman of his life.
Franz Mark. Two cats. 1909
Both Marys are depicted in the small sketch “Two Women on the Mountain” (1906). This is one of the artist’s few works that depict people. In almost all of his paintings, watercolors and engravings we see animals: deer, bulls, cows, cats, tigers, monkeys, foxes, wild boars, but most often horses. He fell in love with them forever during his military service.
Mark, an excellent draftsman, had a special talent for depicting animals. In addition, he specially studied the anatomy of animals, his reference book was “The Life of Animals” by A. Brem, he spent whole days in the zoo, watching animals and making sketches. In all the artist's works, be it pencil sketch or a complex pictorial composition, an early realistic painting or an expressionistic painting, we unmistakably recognize the characteristic behavior of the animal: the fragile grace of a roe deer, the springy energy of a tiger, the impetuosity of a restless monkey, the slowness of a massive bull, the proud stature of a horse.
Franz Mark. Cats on red drapery 1909 -1910.
However, it is impossible to call Franz Marc an animalist: the beast was not a realistic “nature” for him, but a supreme being, a symbol of natural, pure, perfect and harmonious existence. The literary gifted artist eloquently expressed his creative credo in articles and letters to friends: “My goals do not lie primarily in the field of animal art. /…/ I’m trying to strengthen my sense of the organic rhythm of all things, I’m trying to pantheistically feel the trembling and flow of blood in nature, in the trees, in the animals, in the air.” The “animal” vision of the world seemed to him to be something like a window into the natural kingdom inaccessible to humans: “Is there anything more mysterious for an artist than the reflection of nature in the eyes of an animal? How do a horse or an eagle, a roe deer or a dog see the world? How poor and soulless is our idea of placing animals in the landscape that our eyes see, instead of penetrating into their souls.”.
August Macke. Portrait of Franz Marc. 1910
Many circumstances had a beneficial effect on the development of Franz Marc's style. These were trips to Paris in 1907 and 1912, where he came into contact with the art of his contemporaries, the Fauvists and Cubists, among whom Robert Delaunay was especially close to him. This was the friendship that began in 1910 with the young German expressionist August Macke, who for the few remaining years of life for both of them (twenty-seven-year-old Macke died at the front in 1914) became his like-minded person.
Munich, 1911. From left - Maria Mark and Franz Mark,
in the center is Wassily Kandinsky.
Marc's talent fully blossomed in the circle of artists who were united in 1911 by the "Blue Rider" - a community whose soul was Wassily Kandinsky and himself, Franz Marc. “The Blue Rider is the two of us,” Kandinsky later said. Together, having arrogated to themselves, in Kandinsky’s words, “dictatorial powers,” they prepared exhibitions of “The Blue Rider” and together edited the almanac of the same name. Even the appearance of the name “The Blue Rider,” which, as Kandinsky recalled, was born at a coffee table, testifies to the ease of mutual understanding between the two artists: “ We both loved blue, Mark - horses, I - riders. And the name came by itself.” (Just like Kandinsky, Mark gave symbolic meaning color: blue meant for him masculinity, firmness and spirituality.) Kandinsky’s powerful personality in no way suppressed Mark. On the contrary, his individual style at the time of their collaboration, it developed very dynamically: moving from expressionism to abstraction, Mark kept pace with European art.
Franz Mark. Blue horse.1911
Let's compare three paintings by Mark, which have become classics of German expressionism and were written about a year apart - “Blue Horse” (1911), “Tiger” (1912) and “Foxes” (1913). Looking at the canvas “Blue Horse”, you understand that the artist’s words about the “organic rhythm of all things” are not theorizing, but a deep, genuine feeling. The figure of the horse, the landscape and the plant in the foreground are united by a wave-like rhythm: the arc motif is clearly repeated in the outlines of the mountains, in the silhouette of the animal and in the bends of the leaves. Occupying the entire canvas in height, painted from below and therefore towering above the viewer, the figure of the horse is majestic and monumental, like a statue of the deity of these mountains. There is a lot characteristic of Mark in the picture - bright fantastic colors, lack of air environment, dense filling of the canvas.
Franz Mark. Tiger.1912
If in “The Blue Horse” the generalized figure of the animal retains the integrity of the form, and the alpine landscape remains recognizable, then in “The Tiger” Mark more significantly transforms the real image. The contours of the tiger's figure are outlined in rapid zigzags and broken lines, and the surface of the body is divided into triangles and trapezoids. The artist seems to expose the muscles hidden under the skin of the animal, revealing the structure of the animal’s body. The rich background of the picture, consisting of a pile of complexly intersecting planes, partly continues and repeats the lines set in the figure of the animal, so that the tiger seems to be an integral part of the environment, and does not dominate it, like a blue horse. This background is, in fact, pure abstraction, although, of course, one can imagine that the artist depicted thickets in which a tiger was hiding, lying in wait for its prey.
Franz Mark. Foxes.1913In the painting “Foxes” we see a complete interpenetration of forms, blurring the line between the animal and its environment. It seems that the artist is “cutting” the figures of two foxes into fragments and mixing them together like pieces of a puzzle. At the same time, one clearly drawn detail - the narrow muzzle of a fox with a characteristic slope - sets the theme of the painting and connects the almost abstract canvas with reality. These formal searches were serious for Mark. spiritual meaning: he was looking for a way from appearance things (“the appearance is always flat”) to their inner essence and saw the purpose of art in “the revelation of the unearthly life that secretly resides in everything, in the destruction of the mirror of life in order to look into the face of existence.”
Franz Mark. The fate of animals. 1913
In Mark’s works, the natural world appears whole and conflict-free; there is no opposition between predators and their victims; he never depicts hunting scenes, the suffering of animals, and extremely rarely, dead animals. All the more significant was the appearance of the painting “The Fates of Animals,” painted in 1913 - the last pre-war year. The subtitle “Trees show their rings, and animals show their veins” emphasizes the tragic idea of the canvas: only felled trees expose their rings, only dead animals expose their insides. The forest thicket appears in the picture as a symbol of the hidden world of nature, which is destroyed and perishes under the pressure of an unknown formidable force. In the apocalyptic chaos we discern predatory red flashes and rays, falling trunks, restless horses, frightened deer huddled together, wild boars seeking shelter, and in the center of the canvas - as the personification of an innocent victim - a blue doe raising its head to the sky.
Franz Mark. Drawing from a front notebook
This requiem painting, which became a prophecy of the coming war, is one of the last major works Mark, in which he retained a connection with figurative painting. In 1914 he managed to write several abstract compositions(“Tirol”, “Fighting Forms”) and, obviously, stood on the threshold of a new stage in his work. However, in the front-line notebook, Mark, next to the abstractions, still drew deer and his favorite horses. It is impossible to say for sure what the artist’s fate would have been like if he had survived the “Verdun meat grinder.” In the history of art of the 20th century, Franz Marc forever remained a swift rider, galloping on the free blue horse of expressionism.
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Franz Marc. 1880-1916
German expressionist and symbolist artist. Organizer of the Blue Rider group.
German artist with Jewish roots Franz Moritz Wilhelm Mark was born on February 8, 1880 in Munich in the family of lawyer Wilhelm Mark, who was interested in landscape painting. At an early age, the future artist thought about theology, wanting to devote himself to religious activities, then he felt an attraction to philosophy, entering the corresponding faculty at the university in 1899, but by 1900 he realized that his calling was art. The realization of the dream began with entry into the Munich Academy of Arts.
Studying at the academy was useful professionally, but was depressing by traditional approaches to the teaching system, and with a visit to Paris in 1903, Mark felt the atmosphere of a true triumph of art, discovering impressionism, the splendor of the works of ancient masters collected in the Louvre, as well as Japanese print with its linear decorativeness. In search of my own style and subjects, there was a passion for Art Nouveau.
A second trip to Paris, made in 1907, prompted Mark to study the anatomy of animals, which could help realize his creative vision: to convey the essence of nature through animal world; already in his childhood, Mark saw imperfection in people, and believed that the purity of animals is due to their natural “unreasonableness,” and the “dirtiness” of thinking beings is due to the destructive influence of civilization. The sketch for the tapestry “Orpheus and the Beasts” is the first test presented to the public, where the author tried to “remember” the forgotten earthly paradise and show the animals in their original form, with their submission to the will of the Creator.
After 1908, the subjects of Mark's works increasingly replete with images of a horse against the backdrop of a landscape, and by 1910, signs appeared in his paintings indicating an unbalanced state of mind, which was largely caused by failures in relationships with women. At the beginning of the same year, he had his first meeting with the expressionist August Macke, and in September, in Munich, he joined the association of artists of this style, but at the end of 1911, with some like-minded people, he left the group, and together with Kandinsky he organized “The Blue Rider”. This year is also significant for Mark with the creation of the painting “Three Red Horses,” the first completed work written in his unique “animal” style.
Despite his participation in the “Blue Rider” exhibition in 1911, the artist’s work differs from the works of his fellow expressionists; he does not want to introduce intense exaltation into the color and form of his paintings, and maintains a romantic line in search of the ideal and inner harmony.
In 1913, in an intuitive premonition of grandiose and tragic military events, Mark painted paintings filled with disturbing motifs; his painting became more abstract and torn. In the lost painting “Tower of Blue Horses,” the image of a horse, traditionally harmonious in his works, represents a link in a structure lacking stability, with collapsing forms; In the apocalyptically prophetic work “The Fate of Animals” - one of his most famous works, Mark’s alarming moods reached their climax.
Abstract painting captured the artist in 1914, his last year creative path. The dynamics of the development of his painting style during this period indicated the erasure of the threshold of reality, and it was noticeable that there was a confident movement in the direction of abstract art.
The battle of Verdun did not give Franz Marc the opportunity to implement his creative plans, and on March 4, 1916, he died with the conviction that he was participating in a war that could bring spiritual renewal not only to himself, but also to the German intelligentsia. Death was caused by a shell fragment fired from a gun belonging to the country whose art struck in him the strings that made him a true artist.
2014-08-27Artist Franz Marc - friend and like-minded person
Wassily Kandinsky, "Blue Rider"
German expressionism.
“My age, my beast,
who can
Look into your pupils
And with his blood he will glue
Two centuries of vertebrae?
These lines by Osip Mandelstam are like an epigraph to the work, and indeed to the entire life, of Franz Marc. The turn of the century divided the short life of the German artist almost in half: he was born in 1880, and died in 1916 at the front, in the battle of Verdun. Franz Marc was among those masters who glued the vertebrae of two centuries together with the blood of their creativity: the path from the post-impressionist painting that ended the 19th century to the abstract art of the 20th century went through expressionism, and Marc was its key figure. He was one of the Europeans who seemed not to notice the demarcation of countries on the eve of the First World War: together with Wassily Kandinsky, Mark became the founder of the legendary association “Blue Rider” - a creative union of Russian and German artists. Franz Marc was devoted to one topic: he drew and painted animals. Looking into the pupils of the beast, beautiful and free, he looked for answers to the questions of his time and to the eternal questions of all times. The simple subjects of his works seem idyllic: beautiful animals living among virgin nature. But the closer the war was, which broke the backbone of the century, the more clearly one felt the melancholy in the eyes of his animals and the doom in the bends of their bodies.
Franz Mark. Red deer. 1912 G.
Franz Marc's life was developing quite well: he did not know such troubles that darkened the existence of many artists, such as misunderstanding of loved ones, lack of recognition, loneliness, and poverty. He was born in Munich, which at that time was one of the cultural capitals of Europe, into an intelligent family of hereditary lawyers. Franz's father, Wilhelm Mark, changed family tradition and became an artist. His landscapes and genre paintings were successful in their time; on one of them we see fifteen-year-old Franz making something out of wood.
Wilhelm Mark. Portrait of Franz Marc. 1895
Having received an excellent gymnasium education, Franz planned to study theology at the University of Munich. For a thoughtful, sensitive young man, this seemed to be a good choice, but after completing military service, he changed his plans, deciding to become an artist. From 1900 to 1903, Mark was a diligent student of the Munich Academy of Arts, until he came to Paris and saw with his own eyes the paintings of Manet and Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh. After fresh Parisian impressions, the stagnant academic atmosphere became unbearable for Mark. After leaving the walls of the academy, he rented a workshop in the Munich quarter of Schwabing and began working independently.
Schwabing was the center of bohemian life, where exciting acquaintances were quickly made. Mark experienced a stormy affair that led him to depression with a married lady, artist Anette von Eckardt, and found himself in a situation of a painful love triangle, torn between two Marias, also artists - Maria Schnur and Maria Frank. He married the beautiful and independent Maria Shnyur in 1907, but almost immediately realized his mistake. This marriage, which soon became formal, did not allow him to legitimize his relationship with Maria Frank until 1911. Outwardly, they did not seem to be a very suitable couple - Franz, a sophisticated intellectual with noble features, and the round-faced Maria with a rough peasant face. But it was she, warm-hearted and open, who became the woman of his life.
Franz Mark. Two cats. 1909
Both Marys are depicted in the small sketch “Two Women on the Mountain” (1906). This is one of the artist’s few works that depict people. In almost all of his paintings, watercolors and engravings we see animals: deer, bulls, cows, cats, tigers, monkeys, foxes, wild boars, but most often horses. He fell in love with them forever during his military service.
Mark, an excellent draftsman, had a special talent for depicting animals. In addition, he specially studied the anatomy of animals, his reference book was “The Life of Animals” by A. Brem, he spent whole days in the zoo, watching animals and making sketches. In all the artist’s works, be it a pencil sketch or a complex pictorial composition, an early realistic canvas or an expressionistic painting, we unmistakably recognize the characteristic behavior of the animal: the fragile grace of a roe deer, the springy energy of a tiger, the impetuosity of a restless monkey, the slowness of a massive bull, the proud stature of a horse.
Franz Mark. Cats on red drapery 1909 -1910.
However, it is impossible to call Franz Marc an animalist: the beast was not a realistic “nature” for him, but a supreme being, a symbol of natural, pure, perfect and harmonious existence. The literary gifted artist eloquently expressed his creative credo in articles and letters to friends: “My goals do not lie primarily in the field of animal art. /…/ I’m trying to strengthen my sense of the organic rhythm of all things, I’m trying to pantheistically feel the trembling and flow of blood in nature, in the trees, in the animals, in the air.” The “animal” vision of the world seemed to him to be something like a window into the natural kingdom inaccessible to humans: “Is there anything more mysterious for an artist than the reflection of nature in the eyes of an animal? How do a horse or an eagle, a roe deer or a dog see the world? How poor and soulless is our idea of placing animals in the landscape that our eyes see, instead of penetrating into their souls.”.
August Macke. Portrait of Franz Marc. 1910
Many circumstances had a beneficial effect on the development of Franz Marc's style. These were trips to Paris in 1907 and 1912, where he came into contact with the art of his contemporaries, the Fauvists and Cubists, among whom Robert Delaunay was especially close to him. This was the friendship that began in 1910 with the young German expressionist August Macke, who for the few remaining years of life for both of them (twenty-seven-year-old Macke died at the front in 1914) became his like-minded person.
Munich, 1911. From left - Maria Mark and Franz Mark,
in the center is Wassily Kandinsky.
Marc's talent fully blossomed in the circle of artists who were united in 1911 by the "Blue Rider" - a community whose soul was Wassily Kandinsky and himself, Franz Marc. “The Blue Rider is the two of us,” Kandinsky later said. Together, having arrogated to themselves, in Kandinsky’s words, “dictatorial powers,” they prepared exhibitions of “The Blue Rider” and together edited the almanac of the same name. Even the appearance of the name “The Blue Rider,” which, as Kandinsky recalled, was born at a coffee table, testifies to the ease of mutual understanding between the two artists: “ We both loved blue, Mark - horses, I - riders. And the name came by itself.” (Just like Kandinsky, Mark attached symbolic meaning to color: blue meant for him masculinity, firmness and spirituality.) Kandinsky’s powerful personality in no way suppressed Mark. On the contrary, his individual style at the time of their collaboration developed very dynamically: moving from expressionism to abstraction, Mark kept pace with European art.
Franz Mark. Blue horse.1911
Let's compare three paintings by Mark, which have become classics of German expressionism and were written about a year apart - “Blue Horse” (1911), “Tiger” (1912) and “Foxes” (1913). Looking at the canvas “Blue Horse”, you understand that the artist’s words about the “organic rhythm of all things” are not theorizing, but a deep, genuine feeling. The figure of the horse, the landscape and the plant in the foreground are united by a wave-like rhythm: the arc motif is clearly repeated in the outlines of the mountains, in the silhouette of the animal and in the bends of the leaves. Occupying the entire canvas in height, painted from below and therefore towering above the viewer, the figure of the horse is majestic and monumental, like a statue of the deity of these mountains. There is a lot in the painting that is characteristic of Mark - bright fantastic colors, lack of air, dense filling of the canvas.
Franz Mark. Tiger.1912
If in “The Blue Horse” the generalized figure of the animal retains the integrity of the form, and the alpine landscape remains recognizable, then in “The Tiger” Mark more significantly transforms the real image. The contours of the tiger's figure are outlined in rapid zigzags and broken lines, and the surface of the body is divided into triangles and trapezoids. The artist seems to expose the muscles hidden under the skin of the animal, revealing the structure of the animal’s body. The rich background of the picture, consisting of a pile of complexly intersecting planes, partly continues and repeats the lines set in the figure of the animal, so that the tiger seems to be an integral part of the environment, and does not dominate it, like a blue horse. This background is, in fact, pure abstraction, although, of course, one can imagine that the artist depicted thickets in which a tiger was hiding, lying in wait for its prey.
In the painting “Foxes” we see a complete interpenetration of forms, blurring the line between the animal and its environment. It seems that the artist is “cutting” the figures of two foxes into fragments and mixing them together like pieces of a puzzle. At the same time, one clearly drawn detail - the narrow muzzle of a fox with a characteristic slope - sets the theme of the painting and connects the almost abstract canvas with reality. These formal searches had a serious spiritual meaning for Mark: he was looking for a way from the external appearance of things (“the appearance is always flat”) to their inner essence and saw the purpose of art in “revealing the unearthly life that secretly resides in everything, in destroying the mirror of life so that to face existence."
Franz Mark. The fate of animals. 1913
In Mark’s works, the natural world appears whole and conflict-free; there is no opposition between predators and their victims; he never depicts hunting scenes, the suffering of animals, and extremely rarely, dead animals. All the more significant was the appearance of the painting “The Fates of Animals,” painted in 1913, the last pre-war year. The subtitle “Trees show their rings, and animals show their veins” emphasizes the tragic idea of the canvas: only felled trees expose their rings, only dead animals expose their insides. The forest thicket appears in the picture as a symbol of the hidden world of nature, which is destroyed and perishes under the pressure of an unknown formidable force. In the apocalyptic chaos we discern predatory red flashes and rays, falling trunks, restless horses, frightened deer huddled together, wild boars seeking shelter, and in the center of the canvas - as the personification of an innocent victim - a blue doe raising its head to the sky.
Franz Mark. Drawing from a front notebook
This requiem painting, which became a prophecy of the coming war, is one of the last major works of Mark, in which he retained a connection with figurative painting. In 1914, he managed to write several abstract compositions (“Tirol”, “Fighting Forms”) and, obviously, stood on the threshold of a new stage in his work. However, in the front-line notebook, Mark, next to the abstractions, still drew deer and his favorite horses. It is impossible to say for sure what the artist’s fate would have been like if he had survived the “Verdun meat grinder.” In the history of art of the 20th century, Franz Marc forever remained a swift rider, galloping on the free blue horse of expressionism.
Marina Agranovskaya
