MARC FRANZ

Franz Marc (1880-1916) became known principally for his images of animals:blue horses, yellow tigers, red fawns. What was it that led him toconcentrate on painting animals? Marc himself explained his choice ofsubject matter in these words: "From an early date I felt humankind to be'ugly'; animals seemed to me possessed of a greater beauty and purity...."Seeing Marc merely as a painter of animals proves, however, premature.Marc, co-founder of the "Blauer Reiter" group of Expressionist artists,was deeply dissatisfied with the impurity of the world, and was questingfor a universal art which would resolve the contrarieties of life in theharmony of creation. Using pure colours highly charged with symbolicvalues, adopting crystalline shapes, and absorbing the influence ofCubism, he moved steadily towards an abstract order of image, comingcloser to his own understanding of a better world. In 1916, Franz Marcdied in the Battle of Verdun.