Equines and Expressionism

My mother is an art lover. In fact, when I was a child, she was a para-educator who went from school to school teaching art classes. As kids my parents took my older brother and I to many art galleries/museums. I can tell you the name of the major art museums in cities all across America. I've been to most of them. I loved to go, I liked the smell of galleries, and the cold air. I still do.

On one such outing my family went to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, for an exhibition of Paul Gauguin's works. Gauguin, a Post-Impressionist, is a favorite of my mother's. After walking through the exhibition, we visited other parts of the museum. I wandered with my father into the Expressionist paintings, looked at the wall and said to my father "Look Dad, they're horses." He didn't see them right away like I did, but when we looked at placard next to the painting, I was right.

"The Large Blue Horses" by Franz Marc, 1911.


To this day Franz Marc is one of my favorite Expressionist Painters. His works are so evocative, and colorful. I love to study them, to find where the colors melt together. Artists are amazing people. I can't imagine having such beauty in my mind, and the talent to set it free on canvas.

Here are some facts about Franz Marc and Expressionism:
He was born in Munich Germany on February 8, 1880. He was a strict Calvinist. His style is considered "Expressionism." Expressionist work, is essentially work that strives to express emotion or feeling. Sometimes these works are purely abstract, others like Marc's are more realistic. Though most expressionist painters worked during the Turn of The Century, it was not considered a movement like Impressionism had been in France. Most Expressionist artists are German.

Marc's work focused primarily on landscapes and animals. He was a big fan of Vincent VanGogh's works, and he was a friend to fellow expressionist artist Wassily Kandinsky, who later went on to become an abstract artist. Marc is a founding member of the expressionist artists group Dar Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider)

Marc was an expressionist, however, later in his career his work became increasing influenced by Cubism. Though his subject matter remains the same, things look very different through the eyes of a cubist.


Franz Marc, Foxes 1913

Sadly, Franz Marc's life was cut short on March 4, 1916. Prior to being given notice that he had been deemed except from fighting in WWI because of his status as a great German artist, he was killed by a hand grenade while riding a horse on patrol during the Battle of Verdun.