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拍品專文
Fabeltiere I is a captivating example of Franz Marc’s visionary approach to depictions of animals. Executed in 1913, during Marc’s mature period, the work reflects his increasing shift towards abstraction. A vortex of crystaline colour envelopes the composition, within which two stylised fantastical beasts cavort in dynamic harmony. With its rhythmic geometries and undulating forms, Fabeltiere I is a striking expression of the artist’s idealised image of the natural world.
Between 1911 and 1914, Marc concentrated almost exclusively on animal subjects. ‘Is there a more mysterious idea for the artist than the conception of how nature may be mirrored in the eye of the animal?’ observed Marc. ‘How does a horse see the world, how does an eagle, a deer or a dog? How poor and how soulless is our convention of placing animals in a landscape familiar to our own eyes rather than transporting ourselves into the soul of the animal in order to imagine his perception?’ (quoted in K. Lankheit, ed., Franz Marc: Schriften, Cologne, 1978, p. 99). He spent hours observing their movements in the fields surrounding his studio, in the nearby woods, and even at the zoo, where he sketched tigers, bears, and elephants. From these drawings, Marc accumulated a rich compendium of images that he then used to grapple with the inner essence of his subjects and their role within the natural world. Often shown in dynamic groupings, Marc depicted his animals in close communion with the land to show the symbiotic relationship between the two.
Marc’s embrace of animal subjects was inspired by his understanding of art’s moral imperative. He loathed the materialism that had resulted from Germany’s recent industrialisation, believing that this turn would bring ruin to all. Art as Marc understood it, however, offered salvation, and it was through the images of animals that the artist felt he could best communicate his aims as they possessed a purer connection to the world.
By the time Marc painted Fabeltiere I, he had spent several years developing an aesthetic rooted in his understanding of contemporary art, and formally, the image reveals the artist’s awareness of and interest in the wider avant-garde. In 1911, he and Kandinsky had established Der Blaue Reiter, an artist group united by its interest in abstract form, vibrant colour, and the spiritual possibilities of art. Marc’s visual idiom was never stagnant but instead constantly evolving through close attention to the practices of his contemporaries. He was intrigued by Robert Delaunay’s panels of colour in his new series Fenêtres and found himself captivated by the Futurist canvases he saw at various exhibitions in 1912, even writing to Kandinsky about his discoveries: ‘Just a brief note – things that interest you, for example, I’ve seen the Futurists in Cologne and am completely carried away by most of the pictures (especially the mature work of Carlo Carrà, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Serverni)’ (quoted in A. Hoberg, ‘Franz Marc: Aspects of his Life and Work’, in exh. cat., Franz Marc: The Retrospective, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau, Munich, Berlin, 2005, pp. 41-42).
Marc refracted these ideas within his own practice, endeavouring not simply to capture the dynamism of nature but to show that ‘nature lives’, the nascent threads of which can be seen in the present work (quoted in ibid., p. 43). Fabeltiere I certainly seems to live and the two animals appear in a perpetual state of motion, the grasses swirling around their swooping bodies. The works conveys an internal harmony through its bright, balanced tonalities and the manner in which the geometries depicted seem to generate one another. Such visual uniformity suggests an almost cosmic energy pulsing through the natural world. Reflecting later on Marc’s approach to painting, Kandinsky highlighted his friend’s affinity for his subjects: ‘Marc had a direct, intimate relationship with nature like a mountaineer or even an animal. Sometimes I felt as if even nature herself was gratified to see him. Everything in nature attracted him, but above all, the animals. […] What attracted him was the great organic whole, that is to say, nature in general. Here lies the key to the original, individual world Marc created and which others have tried to re-create, but without success’ (‘Franz Marc,’ in Cahiers d’Art, nos. 5-10, Paris, 1936; quoted in Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke: Drawings and Watercolours, exh. cat., New York, 1969, p. viii).
Between 1911 and 1914, Marc concentrated almost exclusively on animal subjects. ‘Is there a more mysterious idea for the artist than the conception of how nature may be mirrored in the eye of the animal?’ observed Marc. ‘How does a horse see the world, how does an eagle, a deer or a dog? How poor and how soulless is our convention of placing animals in a landscape familiar to our own eyes rather than transporting ourselves into the soul of the animal in order to imagine his perception?’ (quoted in K. Lankheit, ed., Franz Marc: Schriften, Cologne, 1978, p. 99). He spent hours observing their movements in the fields surrounding his studio, in the nearby woods, and even at the zoo, where he sketched tigers, bears, and elephants. From these drawings, Marc accumulated a rich compendium of images that he then used to grapple with the inner essence of his subjects and their role within the natural world. Often shown in dynamic groupings, Marc depicted his animals in close communion with the land to show the symbiotic relationship between the two.
Marc’s embrace of animal subjects was inspired by his understanding of art’s moral imperative. He loathed the materialism that had resulted from Germany’s recent industrialisation, believing that this turn would bring ruin to all. Art as Marc understood it, however, offered salvation, and it was through the images of animals that the artist felt he could best communicate his aims as they possessed a purer connection to the world.
By the time Marc painted Fabeltiere I, he had spent several years developing an aesthetic rooted in his understanding of contemporary art, and formally, the image reveals the artist’s awareness of and interest in the wider avant-garde. In 1911, he and Kandinsky had established Der Blaue Reiter, an artist group united by its interest in abstract form, vibrant colour, and the spiritual possibilities of art. Marc’s visual idiom was never stagnant but instead constantly evolving through close attention to the practices of his contemporaries. He was intrigued by Robert Delaunay’s panels of colour in his new series Fenêtres and found himself captivated by the Futurist canvases he saw at various exhibitions in 1912, even writing to Kandinsky about his discoveries: ‘Just a brief note – things that interest you, for example, I’ve seen the Futurists in Cologne and am completely carried away by most of the pictures (especially the mature work of Carlo Carrà, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Serverni)’ (quoted in A. Hoberg, ‘Franz Marc: Aspects of his Life and Work’, in exh. cat., Franz Marc: The Retrospective, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau, Munich, Berlin, 2005, pp. 41-42).
Marc refracted these ideas within his own practice, endeavouring not simply to capture the dynamism of nature but to show that ‘nature lives’, the nascent threads of which can be seen in the present work (quoted in ibid., p. 43). Fabeltiere I certainly seems to live and the two animals appear in a perpetual state of motion, the grasses swirling around their swooping bodies. The works conveys an internal harmony through its bright, balanced tonalities and the manner in which the geometries depicted seem to generate one another. Such visual uniformity suggests an almost cosmic energy pulsing through the natural world. Reflecting later on Marc’s approach to painting, Kandinsky highlighted his friend’s affinity for his subjects: ‘Marc had a direct, intimate relationship with nature like a mountaineer or even an animal. Sometimes I felt as if even nature herself was gratified to see him. Everything in nature attracted him, but above all, the animals. […] What attracted him was the great organic whole, that is to say, nature in general. Here lies the key to the original, individual world Marc created and which others have tried to re-create, but without success’ (‘Franz Marc,’ in Cahiers d’Art, nos. 5-10, Paris, 1936; quoted in Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke: Drawings and Watercolours, exh. cat., New York, 1969, p. viii).