Franz Marc

(Mnchen, 8. veljae 1880. - Verdun, 4. oujka 1916.

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

razdoblje i stil- njemaki ekspresionizam
biografija
zanimljivosti
opus

Expressionist movement in Germany following his time as well. The Blue Rider, was a magazine publication
series, which he was a co-founder of; it focused on the movement, and it was well known to be connected
to a small group of artists who were in charge of posting images, as well as breaking stories, during the time
that the magazine was in existence in Germany.
Travels to Paris
Both in 1903 and again in 1907, he traveled to France, where he spent most of his time in Paris. Not only
did he visit many of the local museums, he also got to meet with many of the artists in the area as well.
During this time, he took much influence from Parisian art, and the artists which were most noted in the
area. Copying the style which was used in the art forms he viewed, was a way for him to learn the different
techniques, and a symbolic way to learn his own style in creation as well. While in Paris, he also discovered
the work of Van Gogh, which he greatly appreciated, and took note of, in the future works he created.

While in Paris, he also got involved with local artists, and many famous actors. Not only did this allow him to
gain more experience, and learn from their influences, it also allowed Franz Marc to draw many of his
styles, and artistic forms from the works of individuals which he was around often. Not only did his style
follow the Parisian style, he also took much influence from the location, and the pieces that he created,
during this early phase of his career.
Short lived Career
Although he was young during the peak of his career, this is namely due to the fact that Franz Marc lived an
extremely short life, and died at the age of 36. He was married twice during his twenties, and was involved
in stormy relationships during this period as well. In terms of his work, in 1906 he traveled with his brother
Paul, to Mt. Athos, and several other Greek landmarks. This took shape in many of the pieces he created
during this period of his career; in 1910, he also became acquainted with Auguste Macke, who not only had
an influence on his work, but also his artistic style.
The Der Blaue Reiter Journal
It was in 1911 that Franz Marc founded the Blue Rider Journal. It was also during this time that he, and the
fellow artists (including Macke) who founded the journal, took on a Neue Movement (new artists's
association). It not only depicted the works of new artists, but the new styles of art that were beginning to
forge in Germany, and other regions of the world. The exhibition which the journal held, featured many of
the works which Franz Marc had created, between the periods of 1911 and 1912.
Futurist movement
In 1912, Franz Marc met with Robert Delaunay, who used color and design methods, in a futuristic manner;
this led to the futurist movement. Marc became fascinated in this futuristic style, as well as in cubism, and it
became a major influence for the work which he produced during this year, as well as the work which came
forth following this period as well. Stark works, and those which were extremely advanced for their time,
including abstract nature, and bold colors and sharp angles, were some of the changes that were seen in
the pieces which Franz Marc created, following the meeting he had with Delaunay, who introduced him to
this new movement, and to this new style, that presented abstract, and new methods to present the same
drawn out works of the past.
Distinct style
During his career, Franz Marc created about 60 pieces in lithography and woodcut. Many of his pieces
depicted animals, in their natural setting and habitat. The use of bold, bright colors were often seen in his
works as well. He took a cubist approach, in the display and creation of the animals that he depicted in his
works; simplicity was often seen as a means to his creative process as well, as most pieces simply focused
on the animal, and the raw emotion, as opposed to drawing in from external factors, to create the printed art
works during his career.
Color scapes
He also gave meaning to the colors that were used in his pieces; blue was used to depict masculinity and a
spiritual style; while yellow and lighter colors depicted femininity and joy. Red tones were often used to
depict violence or some serious under toning in his work. His works were oppressed by the Nazis in the
early 1930s, and nearly 130 pieces which Franz Marc had created, were removed from exhibits, and art
shows that he had become a part of, in different cities in Germany.
Death
Although he died at the young age of 36, many of the pieces created by Franz Marc were influential, and
well ahead of his time. Not only did they cause controversy in his home of Germany, the pieces he created
also showed his extreme knack and ability to differentiate between color scapes, design, and unique
images, using a minimal approach. Not only was his work highly appreciated during his time, and extremely
short career, but to this day, Franz Marc is considered to be one of the most influential painters to come out
of Germany, for the unique style, and for the creative approach he took towards depicting the everyday in
his work.















Franz Marc, whose career was cruelly cut short by the First World War, has
in recent years been the most popular of all the German Expressionists.
One reason for this is supplied by his eloquent and touching letters. Another
may be the fact that his work is not very typical of Expressionism as it is
generally understood. He found a way of giving the German Romantic
painters - Runge, Friedrich, Kobell, Blechen, Rethel and Schwind (all of
whom he warmly admired) a new and modern guise.
Marc was born in Munich in February 1880. His father, Wilhelm Marc, was a
professional landscape painter. His mother, a strict Calvinist, came from
Alsace, but had been brought up in French speaking Switzerland. Marc
himself was a serious child, perhaps because of the repressive influence of
his mother. In high school, his plan was to read theology, but he eventually
enrolled at Munich University as a student of languages. In 1900, however,
when his year of military service was over, he decided to follow in his
father's footsteps and become a painter. He enrolled at the Munich
Academy of Art.
in 1903, with the first stage in his training completed, Marc went to Paris,
where he spent several months, also visiting Brittany. He was greatly
excited by his discovery of the Impressionists at the Durand Ruel Gallery
and in letters home proclaimed them to be 'the only salvation for us artists',
but they made little visible impact on his work. When he returned home he
entered a state of deep depression with an 'anxiety that numbed the
senses'. This was temporarily cured by a trip which he made to Salonika
and Mount Athos in the spring of 1906, accompanying his brother, who was
making a study of Byzantine manuscripts, but returned as soon as he got
back to Paris. He tried to alleviate his condition by drowning himself in his
work, but knew he was getting nowhere. He also got engaged to be
married, which he regretted, and only disentangled himself by running away
to Paris the day before the marriage ceremony, at Easter 1907.
Once back in Paris, he was again entranced by the Impressionists. In a
prophetic metaphor he said that he walked among their paintings 'like a roe
deer in an enchanted forest, for which it has always yearned'. He also
discovered the work of Gauguin and Van Gogh, and was impressed by the
latter in particular. He declared that his own 'wavering, anxiety ridden spirit
found peace at last in these marvellous paintings'. It was at this period that
he began the intensive study of animals which was to lead to his mature
style. He said that he wanted to recreate them 'from the inside', and made
himself so complete a master of animal anatomy that he was able to give
lessons in the subject, until igio, in order to earn some money. Though he
felt he was now making some progress, he destroyed his more ambitious
works, as they continued to dissatisfy him. In December 1908 he wrote a
letter to Reinhart Piper:
I am trying to intensify my feeling for the organic rhythm of all things, to
achieve pantheistic empathy with the throbbing and flowing of nature's
bloodstream in trees, in animals, in the air.
The year 1910 marked a significant turning point. In January he met August
Macke, a painter seven years younger than him, but who seemed extremely
sophisticated and well informed. Through Macke he learned something of
the Fauves, and the following month was able to see what they were doing
for himself, thanks to a Matisse exhibition in Munich. Macke also introduced
him to the collector Bernard Koehler, who happened to be the uncle of
Macke's wife. Koehler liked his work, and offered him a monthly allowance,
which removed the worst of his financial worries. In September Marc
defended the exhibition of the Neue Kuenstlervereinigung, which was being
attacked by the local Munich critics, and was offered membership of the
group as a result. He did not, however, meet Kandinsky, its leading spirit,
until February 1911. By that time he had formed his own set of artistic
principles, which were a mixture of Romanticism, Expressionism
and Symbolism. In December 1910 he wrote a famous letter to Macke,
assigning emotional values to colours:
Blue is the male principle, astringent and spiritual. Yellow is the female
principle, gentle, gay and spiritual. Red is matter, brutal and heavy and
always the colour to be opposed and overcome by the other two.
In 1911 he found himself ready to embark on the series of paintings of
animals which have since been the cornerstone of his reputation. And in
December, after a split in the Neue Kuenstlervereinigung, organized the
first Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) exhibition. Formerly so ineffective and
depressed, Marc had now become a most efficient organizer, and it was he
who persuaded the publisher Reinhart Piper to bring out Kandinsky's
fundamental text, On the Spiritual in Art, and he also played a leading part
in the creation of the Blaue Reiter Almanach and the organization of a
second and more ambitious Blaue Reiter show in 1912. In 1913 he took an
important role in selecting and hanging Der Sturm's First Autumn Salon in
Berlin, and noted how many of the exhibitors were veering towards
abstraction. This confirmed his feelings which had begun to emerge when
he and Macke went to Paris to visit Delaunayin 1912, and saw some
examples from the latter's Window series. By the spring Of 1914 Marc's
own work had become virtually abstract.
This promising career was cut short by the war. Marc was mobilized and
wrote numerous letters home from the Front, expounding his aesthetic
philosophy, and kept a notebook with drawings for the paintings he would
create as soon as he was free to do so. But he was denied the opportunity
he hoped for. In March 1916 he was killed instantly when he was struck in
the head by a shell splinter.




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

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














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




















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

By Franz Marc
1911

Franz Marc was born in Munich, Germany on February 8, 1880. His father worked as a professor at the Munich Academy of Fine
Arts. The young boy originally wanted to become a priest. Then he decided to study philosophy. But both ideas were abandoned and
in 1900 he took painting classes at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.
Paris was at that time the center of the arts. Impressionism had revolutionized the traditional art world. Traveling to Paris and
studying the modern painters like Claude Monet, van Gogh, orPaul Gauguin was a must for a progressive young artist. Marc Franz
undertook several travels to Paris - the first in 1903 and again in 1907 and in 1912. He was deeply influenced by the modern French
painters.
The Blue Rider
Together with Wassily Kandinsky, whom he had met at the Academy, Marc Franz founded the art association The Blue Rider. Other
members were Gabriele Mnter and Alexeji Jawlensky. Later they were joined by August Macke and Paul Klee.
Wassily Kandinsky later recalled how the name Blue Rider was born:
"Franz Marcand I chose this name as we were having coffee one day on the shady terrace of Sindelsdorf. Both of us liked blue, Marc for
horses, I for riders. So the name Blue Ridercame by itself."
For Franz Marc the group had become something like a home. He suddenly had companions with whom he could exchange his
ideas about art. He developed a close friendship with Kandinsky and with August Macke. The group had a very positive effect on
Marc's creativity. His artistic output nearly exploded - both in quality and in quantity.
The Munich Tannhauser gallery was the exhibition platform for the group. In 1911 The Blue Rider had a group exhibition. And in
1913 Tannhauser organized a solo exhibition for the artist.
Franz Marc and his View on Animals
The Tiger

By Franz Marc
1912

Nearly all works of art created by Franz Marc show animals. He liked animals and saw in them innocent beings in harmony with
nature. He wanted to paint the world out of the perspective of the animal. Marc was a very sensitive and spiritual man. Today, only
hundred years later, it is not quite easy to understand the ideas of this artist and others, although they were documented in articles,
books and letters.
Fighting Forms
In one of his last paintings, titled Fighting Forms from 1914, the artist had abandoned figural painting. He certainly created this
painting under the influence of Wassily Kandinsky who had arrived at this step four years earlier. Kandinsky then had left figural
painting for the first time and in 1912 he had published a book about the theory ofabstraction. It is pure speculation how Marc Franz
would have developed his style if his life had not been finished so abruptly at the age of 36.
Fighting Forms

By Franz Marc
1914

Marc and Macke volunteered for the German military service when World War I broke out. They had the idea that the war would be
some kind of a purification of a spoiled and rotten civilization. Macke was killed in action at the very beginning of the war in 1914. And
Marc, shell-shocked by what he saw and experienced, soon changed his opinion. In 1915 he wrote:
"War is one of the most evil things to which we sacrificed ourselves."
On March 4, 1916 he was killed in action.
On the Traces of the Blue Rider
A documentation video in German by Deutsche Welle. Duration: Less than 4 minutes. Thanks toDeutsche Welle. By the way, the
images of the landscape and culture of the homeland of the Blue Rider artist movement are not exaggerated. I am personally happy
to live in this traditional and beautiful part of Bavaria.




















Franz Marc (1880 -1916)

FRANZ MARC (1880 -1916)
'Foxes', 1913 (oil on canvas)
Franz Marc was a German Expressionist painter who formed Der Blaue Reiter group with Wassily Kandinsky. They
were part of an artistic movement who were searching for spiritual truth through their art. Marc believed that color
had a vocabulary of emotional keys that we instinctively understand, much in the same way that we understand
music. This language of color was one element that Marc used to raise his art to a higher 'spiritual' plane; another
was his choice of subject.
'Tiger' - A Fusion of Styles

FRANZ MARC (1880 -1916)
'Tiger' 1912 (oil on canvas)
'Tiger' is a typical example of Franz Marc's painting style. It is a fusion of several influences: the expressive and
symbolic use of color that he discovered in the paintings of Van Gogh and Gauguin combined with the fragmented
and prismatic compositions of various Cubist styles.
The 'Tiger' and its surroundings are composed of geometric shapes whose similarity suggests both the camouflage
of the tiger in its natural habitat and the harmony between the creature and its environment. Color is the main
element used to separate the tiger from its background. Strong yellow and black shapes outline its form to convey
the markings of the beast. The geometric shapes that make up its form are carefully proportioned and simplified to
represent the tiger's features and its muscular body, while their rhythmic movement is echoed in the stylized shapes
of the rocks and foliage of the background.
This is indeed an idealistic view of nature - an image designed to lift its subject above the brutality of nature in the
raw.
'Blue Horse'

FRANZ MARC (1880 -1916)
'Blue Horse' 1911 (oil on canvas)
Franz Marc painted animals as they symbolized an age of innocence, like Eden before the Fall, free from the
materialism and corruption of his own time. Animals in Marc's art are seldom painted in isolation. They are viewed
as idealized creatures in perfect harmony with the natural world they inhabit.
Franz Marc yearned for a life on a higher spiritual plane. In fact, before he took up art, he studied Theology with a
view to entering the priesthood. Ironically, his death was a sad contradiction of his hopes and dreams. He
volunteered for service in the army at the start of World War 1 and never painted again. He was killed by a piece of
shrapnel in 1916, during the assault on Verdun, the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
Franz Marc Notes

AUGUSTE MACKE (1887-1914)
'Portrait of Franz Marc', 1910 (oil on canvas)
Franz Marc was a German Expressionist artist.
Franz Marc was a co-founder of Der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider), a group of artists in the German
Expressionist movement.
In contrast to many Expressionists whose subjects had a social or political message, Franz Marc searched
for a spiritual quality in his art.
Franz Marc painted animals which he viewed as innocent creatures in an ideal world, uncorrupted by man.
Franz Marc simplified his images into geometric shapes which fused the subject with its background.
Franz Marc was killed in 1916 at the Battle of Verdun during World War One.






The vibrant colours which characterise paintings by Marc make his work instantly appealing. He is best remembered for his
images of animals, especially of horses. As one of the leading figures of the German Expressionists, and co-founder of the
group Der Blaue Reiter, his position within the canon of art has been consolidated.


to use non-worldly colours in order to portray the spiritual.

Marc's later colour theory changed slightly and is clearly demonstrated with the workRehe im Walde II (Deer in the Woods II,
1914; Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe ) which presents a family of three deer in which the buck is depicted in blue, the doe in
red, and the fawn in yellow. In this work blue is still used to represent masculinity and yellow still represents the sense of joy of
the youngest deer, but red has now developed to represent motherhood.
14
One can appreciate how the idea of red being
associated with matter and earth evolved into the idea that it can represent motherhood. Marc's application of his colour theory
was, however, abandoned where appropriate: in Der Tiger (The Tiger)
15
the animal is depicted in yellow but the sense of
playfulness and joy, as outlined in Marc's colour theory, is far from the mood evoked.
16
In this painting it is the geometrical
composition and angular shapes and lines which dominate as opposed to colour. Marc has used shapes and lines here in order
to convey the sense of terror. This was perhaps necessary when his colour theory did not allow for sinister moods or emotions
to be represented. In contrast to a work in which Marc departs from his colour theory, the Turm der Blauen Pferde (Tower of
Blue Horses, 1913; missing since the Second World War and known today through reproductions ), which is considered to be
one of his masterpieces, is exemplary of Marc's dogmatic application of it. The Tower of Blue Horses draws strength in its
unification of colour and composition. His belief in blue as the "male principle, stern, and spiritual"
17
is here underlined through
the verticality of the composition, which emphasises male virility and strength yet still maintains a sense of elegance and
spirituality.


Marc took advantage of this change and elevated horses in his work by using them to represent everything that he believed to
be beautiful in the animal kingdom.




Der Blaue Reiter
27
was founded in Munich in 1911 by Marc and Kandinsky after they resigned from the Neue
Knstlervereinigung Mnchen due to their differences of opinion with other members of the association. Marc and Kandinsky
shared similar ideas on art: both believed that true art should possess a spiritual dimension.

Both felt that much of the art of their day lacked any such dimension and thus hoped that Der Blaue Reiter would create a
spiritual revolution in art.



The key events of the group's activities were two exhibitions, in 1911 and 1912, and the publication of an almanac in
1912.
30
Both exhibitions were held in Munich, and subsequently travelled around Germany. They featured works by members
of the group and by other artists, including the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Delaunay, and the French artist Henri
Rousseau (1844-1910) whose work was chosen by Marc and Kandinsky because they represented what they believed to be true
art. The almanac, which explored the group's shared consideration for the spiritual aspect of art, consisted of a series of essays
by its members and was edited by Marc and Kandinsky, who also contributed three essays each. The essays in the almanac are
interspersed and accompanied by illustrations which compare art works from different regions and epochs.


In his essay in the almanac entitled 'Spiritual treasures', Marc discusses the idea of the "mystical inner construction,"
33
referring
to the sense of spirit which gives a being or place its unique character. Marc explores this theme through the figures present in
works by El Greco and the landscapes by the French artist Paul Czanne (1839-1906).
34
The use of the word "mystical"
encourages both the impression of something which is not immediately obvious or material and a sense of intrigue. Marc
seemed to be striving to achieve and to capture this "mystical inner construction" in his paintings of animals. Another essay
entitled 'The "savages" of Germany' can further aid an understanding and appreciation of Marc's paintings and the objectives of
his artistic production. In this essay Marc identifies "symbols that belong on the altars of a future spiritual religion"
35
within the
work of Kandinsky and von Jawlensky. He implies that this is a basis for the work of Der Blaue Reiter and consequently for his
own work. Hence, it appears that Marc was preoccupied with representing the inner being of his subject, and that spirituality
and religion were at the forefront of his objectives.
Late Works
it is around 1912 and in the subsequent years leading up to the First World War, that we see his work and representations of
animals changing. The animals within these compositions become smaller and are often spread out; the sense of calm and
contemplation is absent since the picture plane begins to be cut up and divided by lines and geometric forms as the influence
of Cubism, Futurism, and Orphism is evident; we begin to see more evidence of human life, as in Das Arme Land Tirol (The
Unfortunate Land of Tyrol),
36
as Marc's idealised animal kingdom begins to give way to reality. Tierschicksale: Die Bume
Zeigten ihre Ringe, die Tiere ihre Adern (Animal Destinies: The Trees Show their Rings, the Animals their Veins) (1913;
Kunstmuseum Basel, Basle) typifies this period.
37



In a 1915 letter to his wife Maria, Marc explains that this change in his art occurred because he began to see the ugliness in
animals which he had previously thought only existed in humans. He states that he was no longer able to see the beauty which
animals had once represented for him.
38
The animal motifs which once conveyed a sense of emotion no longer held their appeal
and possibility. The application of paint and the division of the picture plane through the use of lines and geometric shapes now
carried the emotional charge previously conveyed by animals. This change may be related to Marc's ideas on the impending
war. In apprehension of the First World War, Marc was part of the school of thought that the war would purify and redeem the
universe of all that was bad.
39
Marc no longer saw animals as separate entities in their own perfect kingdom, as he had once
represented them. At the point when Marc began to identify the ugliness in animals, he recognised them as part of the universe
which man also inhabited and which was in need of redemption.
In Marc's very final works before the outbreak of the First World War, it is extremely difficult to identify any animals, since non-
representational form and abstraction have taken over. One of his final major paintings is Kmpfende Formen (Fighting Forms,
) which is dominated by two swirling shapes, one red and the other black.

the Expressionists felt so strongly about human suffering, poverty, violence and passion, that they were inclined to think that
the insistence on harmony and beauty in art was only born out of a refusal to be honest. It became almost a point of honour
with them to avoid anything which smelt of prettiness and polish, and to shock the 'bourgeois' out of his real or imagined
complacency.
41

Gombrich's definition is a reflection of many people's understanding of Expressionism. Marc's major early paintings, namely
from c.1910 to 1912, do not fit neatly into this description; however his later paintings could indeed be considered in this way.
For example, Fighting Forms may be viewed as an essay on violence and, furthermore, his more abstract works are not
characterised by the "prettiness and polish" of his earlier works. Marc's Expressionism was personal since it reflected and
transpired from his own personal beliefs. His identification of the harsh realities of the world, as outlined above by Gombrich,
led him to depict what he believed to be purer and more beautiful than man, namely animals. The effect of the impending war
on Marc's artistic output may be returned to once again here. Since at the end of his career Marc could no longer recognise the
beauty and purity in animals, as he had once been able to there is the implication that he must have been more aware of
"harsh realities". Moreover, his country was on the threshold of war and it seems that he could no longer create an idealised
world but had to bow to reality.



saetak

Franz Marc roen je 8. veljae 1880. u Munchenu, Njemaka. Studirao je na M He studied at the Munich Art Academy and
traveled to Paris several times where he saw the work of Gauguin, Van Gogh, and the Impressionists. With Kandinsky, he
founded the almanac "Der Blaue Reiter" in 1911 and organized exhibitions with this name. He was a principal member of the
First German Salon d'Automne in 1913. At the beginning of World War I, he volunteered for military service and he died near
Verdun, France, on March 4, 1916.
Franz Marc was a pioneer in the birth of abstract art at the beginning of the twentieth-century The Blaue Reiter group put forth
a new program for art based on exuberant color and on profoundly felt emotional and spiritual states. It was Marc's particular
contribution to introduce paradisiacal imagery that had as its dramatis personae a collection of animals, most notably a group
of heroic horses.
Tragically, Marc was killed in World War I at the age of thirty-six, but not before he had created some of the most exciting and
touching paintings of the Expressionist movement.