Perhaps I could chalk it up to being introduced to his work at the passionate age of 20, because my affair with Franz Marc's work was love at first sight. Seriously. I was in art history class, viewing slides from the impressionist/expressionist/cubist era and this work, The Fate of the Animals, hit me like a shot to the heart. If it were at all done, I probably would have doodled "I love Franz!" on my Trapper Keeper, and attempted to mimic his play of color and light in the margins of my $100 used textbook.
Marc was a German expressionist that created at the turn of last century. His work is bright, colorful, abstract, organic and alive. He used primaries to communicate masculinity (blue), femininity (yellow), and conflict (red). His favorite subjects were from nature, notably deer, horses, tigers and lambs. His use of both created art that was dynamic and seemingly lit from within.
Another reason to like him? He was a World War I hero, fighting on the front lines and dying tragically in battle in 1916. The Nazis hated him, labelling him "degenerate artist" in 1937, and ordering 130 of his pieces be removed from German art houses. Jeez failed-art-student Adolph, jealous much?
The Fate of the Animals is Marc's best-known work, and one of my favorites. But why stop there? A short list of must-Google works includes The Tiger, Horse in a Landscape, Deer in the Woods I & II, The Tower of Blue Horses and Fighting Forms. He was ahead of his time and took the sweet, dappled impressionism in a new, dynamic direction. I heart Marc!
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