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August Macke Quotes (1887-1914)
Artist
About August Macke
August Macke (3 January 1887 β 26 September 1914) was a German Expressionist artist, who was well-known for introducing bright colors in the early stages of Expressionism. He was part of the art-group Der Blaue Reiter, which he joined through his friendship with Franz Marc, and knew Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Robert Delaunay; before his death in the First World War, he would leave behind hundreds of artworks, celebrated by the people around him.
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βIt was the desire for living, vital expression which built Gothic cathedrals, which created Mozart sonatas. I believe it is going to stay that way for long time to come.β
βI have been in Munich this week, and got to know the whole 'Neue KΓΌnstlervereinigung' at Tannhauser's [gallery] β Jawlensky, Kandinsky etc. For Munich they are very, very good, I was interested.β
β'Time' has a large part to play in looking at a picture. A picture (a stupid empty surface to begin with) gets covered in the course of its creation by a rhythmically measured network of colors, lines and dots, which evokes in its final form a total of living movement. The eye jumps from a blue to red, to green (even if there is only a change of form), to a black line, suddenly comes upon a sharp white eruption, follows it, floats on to... It is impossible to take it all in at once. Time is inseparable from surface.β
βI have just been thinking that the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) does not really represent my work. I have always been convinced that other things of mine are more important. ... Narcism, fake heroism, and blindness have a lot to answer for, in the 'Blaue Reiter'. All those high-sounding words about the birth of a great spiritual moment still resounding in my ears. Kandinsky can air his personal opinion about that or any other revolution he cares to mention. But I dislike the whole thing. ... Take my advice β work, and don't spent so much time thinking about blue riders or blue horses.β
βI have been to [the gallery] Hagen, saw two Matisses, which enchanted me. A large collection of Japanese masks. Sublime! 'Neue [KΓΌnstler] Vereinigung' were hung in a bad light. ... Kandinsky, Jawlensky, Bechteleff and ErbslΓΆh have immense artistic sensibility. But the means of expression are to big for what they have to say. The sound of their voice is so good, so fine, that what is being said get lost. Consequently a human element is missing. They concentrate, too much, I think, on form. There is much to be learnt from their efforts. But early things by Kandinsky, and a few by Jawlensky too, seem a little empty to me. And Jawlensky's heads looked at me a little bit too much with colors. With blue and green. I hope you understand what I mean.β
βCubism, Futurism, Expressionism, abstract painting, are only names given to a change which our artistic thinking wants to make and is thinking. Nobody has ever painted fallen raindrops suspended in the air, they've always been depicted as streaks (even the cave-men drew herds of reindeer in the same way). Now people are painting cabs rattling, lights flickering, people dancing, all-in the same way (this is how we all see movement). That is thew whole frightfully simple secret of Futurism. Its very easy to prove its artistic feasibility, for all the philosophizing that has been raised against it. Space, surface and time are different things, which ought not to be mixed together, is the continuous cry. If only it were possible to separate them. I can't do it.β
βThe new discovery that I have made in painting is the following. There are chords of colors, let's say a certain red and green, which move, shimmer when you look at them. Now if you're looking at a tree in a landscape, you can either look at the tree, or at the landscape, but not both, because of the stereoscopic effect. Now, when you are painting something three-dimensional, the chromatic sound which shimmers is the three-dimensional effect of colour, and when you paint a landscape, and the green foliage shimmers a little with the blue sky showing through it, that happens because the green is on a different plane from the sky in nature too. Finding the space-shaping energies of colour, instead of contenting ourselves with a dead chiaroascuro, is our finest task.β
What August Macke Said About Others
Discover personal opinions August Macke shared regarding contemporaries.
August Macke on Robert Delaunay
βHe [Robert Delaunay] gives movement itself [in his pictures], the Futurists only illustrate movement..β
August Macke on Franz Marc
βI have just been thinking that the Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) does not really represent my work. I have always been convinced that other things of mine are more important.. .Narcism, fake heroism, and blindness have a lot to answer for, in the Blaue Reiter. All those high-sounding words about the birth of a great spiritual moment still resounding in my ears. Kandinsky can air his personal opinion about that or any other revolution he cares to mention. But I dislike the whole thing.. .Take my advice β work, and don't spent so much time thinking about blue riders or blue horses.β
Quotes About August Macke
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about August Macke from others.
Quote of his friend on August Macke
βEverything he paints is a search, a self-development, a striving for understanding of the most profound kind. He is still experimenting, not executing, he often paints two or three pictures in a day, and his sketchbooks are already innumerable. He lives in a continuous, sharp criticism of his work and is thus constantly changing and developing. He has, by nature, absolutely no interest in the transcendental. His sensitivity is elemental and deep. He experiences β I would say β those many moments of ecstasy, the alternation between the greatest happiness and the deepest depression, which are the lot of a great artist, who must learn the whole gamut of feeling from his own experience.β
Quote of Franz Marc on August Macke
βThe harvest of your Summer [1910] is displayed on our walls. I like some of them terrifically. The 'certainty' with which most of it is done makes me feel ashamed of myself. The thousand steps that I need to take for a picture are of no advantage, as I sometimes foolishly used to think. Things must change.β
Franz Marc on August Macke 2 quotes
βIn war we are all equal, but among a thousand good men, a bullet hit an irreplaceable one. We painters know well that with the loss of his harmony [of August Macke], the color in German art will become many shades paler..β
de:Wolf-Dieter Dube on August Macke
βIn the Summer of 1908 he [Macke] returned to Paris, where he was most struck by Cezanne, Seurat and Paul Gauguin. He went to Paris again in 1909, this time in the company of Louis Moilliet. Immediately after this he went to the Tegernsee, a lake in Northern Bavaria. ... he spent a year there, during which, on a visit to Munich, he discovered Marc. ... Macke's encounter with the Blaue Reiter [in Munich], and his rejection of the group's dramatization of the content of art, led him to clarify his idea of what painting meant for him, namely giving an artistic form to impressions of the visible, material world.β
About August Macke
August Macke (3 January 1887 β 26 September 1914) was a German Expressionist artist, who was well-known for introducing bright colors in the early stages of Expressionism. He was part of the art-group Der Blaue Reiter, which he joined through his friendship with Franz Marc, and knew Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Robert Delaunay; before his death in the First World War, he would leave behind hundreds of artworks, celebrated by the people around him.