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Jan 6, 2012
The Week in Germany
Dear TWIG Readers,
August Macke
August Macke's short life was like a starburst shattered into a kaleidoscope of colors on the early morning horizon of 20th-century Modernism.
One of the most important artists of his generation, Macke was influenced by the French Fauves and the German Expressionists. He also adopted a new mode of painting pioneered by the Delauneys, a Parisian artist couple who replaced the monochromatic, angular abstractions of Cubism with the Fauves' bold colors by creating a new "orphistic" style characterized by cross-cutting rays of light.
January 3rd marked his 125th birthday, which the August Macke Haus museum in Bonn will celebrate with a new exhibition chronicling how his extensive travels influenced him by juxtaposing specific artworks with particular places he visited.
Yet his life's journey came to an untimely end, making his prolific output of modern masterpieces all the more remarkable. Time, alas, was not on Macke's side when his life was tragically cut short at the tender age of 27 on a French battlefield in September 1914, only a few months into World War I.
Known as a deft mediator among disparate groups of artists, Macke was a great communicator who sought to bring together various players in avant-garde circles to exchange ideas, learn from each other, and mount exhibitions together.
It's too bad the leaders of Europe were not all equally likeminded at the time. Had more "avant-garde" ideas - and better, faster and more effective forms of communication (including among related families of monarchs still in charge of vast swathes of Europe) - existed back then, perhaps an all-out war might have been averted.
Yet painfully juxtaposed with the great tragedies of two world wars fought largely on European soil was an unprecedented flowering of the arts - including the birth of Modernism - across Europe.
In Germany this ran the gamut from Expressionism (Der Blaue Reiter/The Blue Rider and Die Brücke/The Bridge) to the stark rationalism of Die Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity) to the whimsical absurdity of Dada to the brilliant Bauhaus School of Design, founded in Weimar in 1919 and relocated to Dessau only to be shut down by the Nazis in 1932, after which many of its chief architects (Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe) fled to the United States.
Reflecting on the amazing art produced in Germany in the 20th century, I've always thought how wonderful it would have been had August Macke - as well as his dear friend, the German Expressionist painter Franz Marc, who died at 36 in 1916 in France - been spared the fate of millions of other men who perished in the Great War.
Why did such preternaturally talented artists, who might have produced so many more marvelous works, have to die amid such senseless carnage - along with a whole generation of men whose lives were also cut short or shattered by horrific injuries?
It is heartbreakingly ironic to think that a young man like Macke, who so admired many of his French counterparts, perished in a brutal conflict just across the border from his German home on French soil. Surely he would have rather been painting or traveling or sparking new dialogues in avant-garde circles?
Macke went off to war as he viewed it as his obligation as a German citizen. He was merely doing a duty he believed he had to perform - like so many other men from several countries (England, France, the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, and the soon-to-be-dissolved Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires, among others). Some 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of great technological advances in firepower without corresponding advances in mobility.
If there is any lesson that can be learned from such senseless tragedy it is that diplomacy must always prevail before any situation escalates into violent conflict.
Karen Carstens
Editor, The Week in Germany
Webteam Germany.info
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