Artist August Macke
German Expressionist Painter and Member of Der Blaue Reiter
© Meg Nola
Jan 13, 2009
Macke was born in Meschede, Germany on January 3, 1887. By 1900, August’s family had moved to Bonn, where his mother rented rooms to university students and teachers to boost the family income. While the Mackes were not doing very well financially, the father of one of August‘s schoolmates helped pay for August to go to art school in Düsseldorf.
Formal and Personal Education
Macke was relatively unchallenged by the Düsseldorf Academy’s traditional methods, and its use of plaster casts instead of actual models for life studies and nudes. He continued on with his coursework, however, and also became involved in designing sets for the Düsseldorf Theater. His set designs were well-received, and he was even offered a paid job with the theater yet chose not to accept. Macke opted to pursue his own art education methods instead, finally leaving the Düsseldorf Academy in 1906.
A 1907 visit to Paris would greatly influence Macke’s development, as he took in the works of such great French artists as Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Claude Monet. His independent studies further included reading the art theory writings of Leonardo da Vinci, visits to museums and galleries, and frequent outdoor painting sessions. His Paris trip was financed by Bernhard Koehler, a factory owner from Berlin and the uncle of Macke’s wife-to-be Elisabeth. Macke and Elisabeth married in 1909, eventually setting up a home and studio back in Bonn and raising two sons.
Der Blaue Reiter and Beyond
Macke’s friendship with fellow German artist Franz Marc began in 1910, and soon after Macke was introduced to Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky and Marc were the main figures in forming a Munich-based, spiritually heightened Expressionist group called Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), Der Blaue Reiter also being the name of a 1903 Kandinsky painting. Macke was another Der Blaue Reiter artist, exhibiting with them and contributing to their eclectic 1912 almanac. Macke’s other good friend, Swiss-born Paul Klee, would become affiliated with the group as well.
While Macke was not a fan of rules and theories and artistic manifestos, he did enjoy the freedom to express himself and his passion for color. Beyond painting, he exercised Arts and Crafts-like inclinations by designing stained glass windows and unique embroidery patterns. Many influences went into his style, from the Impressionists to the Fauves to Cubism and Japanese art. A 1912 meeting with French painter Robert Delaunay would bring another strong influence for Macke, Delaunay then producing his own color-intense refraction of Cubism known as Orphism. Macke’s 1914 trip to Tunisia with Paul Klee and encounters with North Africa’s unique light and landscape would move Macke’s tones and tints to an even more beautiful level, especially in his watercolor works.
War and Loss
Germany’s entry into World War I proved fatal for August Macke, who was killed on September 26, 1914, shortly after being sent to the front lines. Before heading off to battle, Macke had finished his last painting called Farewell, which shows almost premonitory dark figures and shapes and not his earlier brilliant, light-filled arrangements. Macke’s friend Franz Marc died in combat in 1916 — casualties marking tragic loss of lives and countless works never created.
August Macke’s paintings can be seen in many German museums, and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the St. Louis Art Museum. Furthermore, the August Macke Haus in Bonn has been open to the public since 1991, to allow visitors to tour Macke’s actual studio and home and to serve as a research center and library for study of the German Expressionist movement.
Sources
 |
 |
 |
