August Macke
Case Study – August Macke
August Macke was an artist born in Germany on the 3rd of January, 1887 and became a leading member of the expressionist movement, Der Blaue Reiter, before the movement ended due to the dispersion of members in the First World War. He himself was drafted into the German army and was inevitably was killed in action on the 26th of September 1914, only at the age of 27.
August Macke was an expressionist painter, who would present the world solely from a subjective perspective, and distort artworks radically for emotional effects in order to evoke moods or ideas. He was more interested in emotional experiences rather than the physical reality and perception of the world. In many of his artworks, a recurring style he uses is the distortion of reality by removing the faces and furthermore expression from his figures.
August Macke was first inspired by his dad’s drawings, from some Japanese prints collected by his friend’s father, and the works from Arnold Bocklin, which he saw on a visit to Basel in 1900. In 1904, Macke’s father died and in the same year he enrolled in an art academy for the following 2 years. His artistic career started in 1907, living most of his creative life in Bonn. During a trip to Paris in 1907, Macke was introduced to the works of the Impressionists, which formed the basis of his style. In 1911, Macke, Franz Marc and a friend he met earlier, Wassily Kandinsky, formed Der Blaue Reiter.
He has been inspired greatly by Robert Delaunay in Paris 1912 and a technique he used, chromatic cubism. From then onwards, Macke has been influenced by his artworks. In Macke’s Shop Windows in particular is considered to be a personal interpretation of Delaunay’s Windows, combined with Italian Futurism.
In 1914, he travelled to Tunisia with Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet, experiencing the exotic atmosphere which was fundamental to the creation of the luminist approach, seen in his final period. During this period, he created a
August Macke was an artist born in Germany on the 3rd of January, 1887 and became a leading member of the expressionist movement, Der Blaue Reiter, before the movement ended due to the dispersion of members in the First World War. He himself was drafted into the German army and was inevitably was killed in action on the 26th of September 1914, only at the age of 27.
August Macke was an expressionist painter, who would present the world solely from a subjective perspective, and distort artworks radically for emotional effects in order to evoke moods or ideas. He was more interested in emotional experiences rather than the physical reality and perception of the world. In many of his artworks, a recurring style he uses is the distortion of reality by removing the faces and furthermore expression from his figures.
August Macke was first inspired by his dad’s drawings, from some Japanese prints collected by his friend’s father, and the works from Arnold Bocklin, which he saw on a visit to Basel in 1900. In 1904, Macke’s father died and in the same year he enrolled in an art academy for the following 2 years. His artistic career started in 1907, living most of his creative life in Bonn. During a trip to Paris in 1907, Macke was introduced to the works of the Impressionists, which formed the basis of his style. In 1911, Macke, Franz Marc and a friend he met earlier, Wassily Kandinsky, formed Der Blaue Reiter.
He has been inspired greatly by Robert Delaunay in Paris 1912 and a technique he used, chromatic cubism. From then onwards, Macke has been influenced by his artworks. In Macke’s Shop Windows in particular is considered to be a personal interpretation of Delaunay’s Windows, combined with Italian Futurism.
In 1914, he travelled to Tunisia with Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet, experiencing the exotic atmosphere which was fundamental to the creation of the luminist approach, seen in his final period. During this period, he created a