Journey Through a Landscape of Colour

German-born artist August Macke is perhaps a lesser-known artist in popular circles, but on the recent anniversary of his death on 26 September 1914, his truly deserved legacy is celebrated.  

August Macke’s artistic style was a journey through an evolving landscape of colour and culture. His artistic work created a world which broke away from convention. According to critic Ina Ewers-Schultz from the Museum August Macke Haus, Bonn, Macke ‘is one of the most important pioneers at the beginning of the 20th Century. He tirelessly experiments with colour and form in his quest to invent a new language of art.’ Indeed, Macke’s quest to re-sculpt artistic ideas was a process influenced by different countries, perspectives, and peoples. Macke’s first visit to Paris in 1907 was where he became heavily inspired by French Impressionists. Macke was compelled to return to Paris in the subsequent years of 1908 and 1909 to soak in the energy of the ever-evolving modern art. Later, Macke was also inspired by the Fauvists, as well as Cubism.  

Creation, not imitation 

However, it is not only artistic movements which influenced Macke but also his personal life. A significant individual in Macke’s personal life was Elisabeth Gerhardt, whom he married in 1909. Elisabeth was his companion and inspirational muse. The couple went on to have two sons, and family life became a key theme in Macke’s paintings. He was particularly interested in how family life could create harmony in a conflicted world. Certainly, the innocence of children was central to creating this peaceful existence. Macke was not only inspired by the innocence of children but also the originality in their directness and honesty of expression. Indeed, a popular Macke quote holds this sentiment: “To create form is to be alive. To imitate form is to pretend to be alive. Are not children, who draw directly out of the mystery of their feeling, more creative than the sculptor who apes Greek form?” 

Macke was not the only artist who believed that retaining childlike honesty was important in creating art: Picasso famously held the aspiration to return to painting like a child. Such whimsical aspirations continued to shake convention. Furthermore, Macke had an urge to break free from these middle-class conventions. Despite the marital harmony of family life, Macke’s partnership was not without its challenges. For example, Elisabeth’s taboo pregnancy out of wedlock meant that the couple decided to move from Bonn to Tegernsee. Furthermore, Macke found the conservative notions of art in the academy in which he studied stifling.  

Taking Inspiration from Travel 

However, this very frustration with societal and artistic constraints was a collective one, shared by other artists. It was Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc who initially formed Der Blaue Reiter group in Munich in 1912. The group attracted like-minded artists, such as Macke himself, Gabriele Münter, and Paul Klee. The Blaue Reiter group found the modern world increasingly isolating and mundane and believed that art could add a spiritual value and colour to a grey existence. Der Blaue Reiter group was part of a larger artistic movement called “expressionism,” which emerged earlier in 1910. There was a growing view that humanity was becoming ever more out of touch with originality, authenticity, and spirituality. Throughout his brief life, Macke was able to travel and experience cultures authentically. A truly formative trip in Macke’s artistic development was in 1914 when he travelled to Tunisia with Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet.  

In Tunisia, Macke combined the vibrant, colourful palette of Impressionism with the structural formations of Cubism when he created his famous series of thirty-seven watercolours. The mountains in the watercolour ‘St. Germain near Tunis’ has this quality of cubism. The saturated colours in ‘Courtyard in St. Germain’ and the market scene of ‘Vendor with Pitchers’ evoke the heat, spices, and dust. Macke created landscapes of mountains, verandas, market scenes and steps as if we ourselves could climb into the vibrant experience of his travels. 

Macke certainly brought the excitement and originality of his travels back to his home in Germany. His creativity was by no means limited to paintings but also spanned to interior design with homeware such as porcelain and embroidery. He disliked the harsh world of industrialisation and technology and strove to restore Germany’s bad reputation for poorly made items and the threatening decline of craftsmanship in the 19th century. Ultimately, Macke was passionate about making the tactile objects of the everyday beautiful instead of purely functional.  

Tragic Death and Legacy 

Macke’s life was cut drastically short when he was killed in 1914, at the age of 27. Franz Marc, a friend of August Macke’s described the tragedy in the following words: 

“With his death, one of the most beautiful and boldest curves in all German artistic development breaks off abruptly.” Furthermore, the First World War resulted in the collapse of Der Blaue Reiter group in 1914. Just before Macke’s death, the National Socialists confiscated the artworks of August Macke, deeming them “Degenerate Art” in 1937-38. Certainly, this oppressive period could well have appeared to crush all evidence of Macke’s creativity, as well as the experimentation of Expressionism. However, the legacy of August Macke is not lost thanks to the tireless work of his wife, Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke, who played a central role in materialising the legacy of August Macke after his death. It is thanks to her memoirs that we can still appreciate Macke’s contribution to modernity, creativity, and the importance of liberty.  

 Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, ©2023. Some rights reserved.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.