'' (1911) In 1906, Marc traveled with his elder brother Paul, a
Byzantine expert, to
Thessaloniki,
Mount Athos, and various other Greek locations. A few years later, in 1910, Marc developed an important friendship with the artist
August Macke. In 1910 Marc painted
Nude with Cat and
Grazing Horses, and showed works in the second exhibition of the
Neue Künstlervereinigung (New Artists' Association, of which Marc was briefly a member) at the
Thannhauser Galleries in
Munich. Morgan Meis writes, "we can say that Franz Marc became an artist in the winter of 1910-11. Something awoke in him, something came together." "Marc made the leap from artistic confusion to profound vision.... His animals began to emerge pure and true from the canvas.... Color was the main thing. Such an explosion of color. Primary colors. Red stands out on the canvas directly contrasting with a swath of blue." In addition, writes Meis, "the element of abstraction gets stronger in Marc's work after ... 1910-11, not weaker."
Der Blaue Reiter , Munich In 1911, Marc founded the
Der Blaue Reiter journal, which became the center of an artist circle, along with Macke,
Wassily Kandinsky, and others who had decided to split off from the
Neue Künstlervereinigung movement. Though Marc showed several of his works in the first
Der Blaue Reiter exhibition at the Thannhauser Galleries in Munich between December 1911 and January 1912, as it was the apex of the German
expressionist movement, the exhibit also showed in
Berlin, Cologne, Hagen, and Frankfurt. In Berlin the gallery owner
Herwarth Walden displayed Marc alongside works by
Paul Klee,
Alfred Kubin, and
Alexej von Jawlensky. Known as
Storm exhibition, in 1912 the collection was exhibited in Wuppertal. The
Blue Rider is associated with
Munich and the color blue, to which Marc attributed special qualities. The
Wilhelmine period in Germany was dominated by academy art institutions.
Anton von Werner was among the visual artists considered
official taste. In 1912, Marc met
Robert Delaunay, whose use of color and the
Cubist method was a major influence on Marc's work. Fascinated by
Futurism and Cubism, Marc created art that increasingly was stark in nature, painting natural abstract forms which found spiritual value in color. He painted
The Tiger and
Red Deer in 1912 and
The Tower of Blue Horses,
The Foxes, and
Fate of the Animals in 1913. By 1916, he had been promoted to lieutenant and awarded the
Iron Cross. After mobilization of the German Army, the government identified notable artists to be withdrawn from combat for their own safety. Marc was on the list but was struck in the head and killed instantly by a shell splinter during the
Battle of Verdun in 1916 before orders for reassignment could reach him. ==Style==