FRANZ MARC German, 1880-1916
"Nature is everywhere, in us and out of us; there is only something that is not entirely nature, but rather its overcoming and interpretation: art."
Franz Marc was a German artist remembered for his vividly colored Expressionist paintings and prints. Frequently depicting cubistic animals set within landscapes, Marc strove to achieve an exalted level of experience in producing his work. “I am trying to heighten my feeling for the organic rhythm in all things,” he once explained. “ [I am] trying to establish a pantheistic contact with the tremor and flow of blood in nature, in animals, in the air—trying to make it all into a picture, with new movements and with colors that reduce our old easel paintings to absurdity.” Born on February 8, 1880 in Munich, Germany, he developed an interest in art from his father, the landscape and genre painter Wilhelm Marc. After attending the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, he spent time travelling around Europe. In 1911, the artist helped found the Der Blaue Reiter group, alongside Wassily Kandinsky, August Macke, and Alexej von Jawlensky. World War I saw him drafted into the German army, where he designed military camouflage and served in the infantry. Marc was killed by an exploding shell fragment on March 4, 1916 in Braquis, France. Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others.
