Franz Marc
Today, February starts, and we begin a special month with the Lenbachhaus in Munich, which houses one of the finest collection of the Blue Rider group. We hope you will enjoy highlights from their magnificent collection!
Franz Marc’s Blue Horse I is a perennial favorite with Germans, and not only with them. Museum shops around the world sell umbrellas, coffee mugs, and mouse pads printed with the motif. But why exactly is this picture so widely cherished, and what would Marc have thought about its popularity?
The blue horse lives in another world. Simple shapes in bold colors create a clear vision of unsullied nature. The young foal is touchingly shaky on its legs, inclining its head in an expression of melancholy. It seems human or perhaps Christ-like. Even a viewer who does not draw the connection will be deeply moved, feeling compassion and maybe a yearning for a world like this.
In the Blue Rider Almanac, the book that Marc and Kandinsky put together in 1912, Marc discusses their intention to create new symbols that would adorn “the altars of the spiritual religion of the future and behind which the technical producer would vanish.” So it is no longer the creator of a work that counts, but the work’s spiritual content, which, ideally, is transmitted to any beholder.
The blue horse—for Marc, blue was the color of the spirit—is an emblem of these new ideas. One day, the artist claimed, you would meet such emblems on a country road. In a sense, his prophecy has come true. So let’s assume that Marc would have been delighted to see his “Blue Horse” on an umbrella.
P.S. This remarkable masterpiece is featured on the cover of our Animals 50 Postcards Set; find out what other artworks are hidden inside! Also, we're clearing out the warehouse, so you can grab the last copies of DailyArt Calendars at 40% off. Enjoy! :)
P.P.S. Marc looked to the natural world as an antidote to modern life, from which he felt increasingly alienated. Discover one of Franz Marc's favorite subjects—horses!