AUGUST MACKE

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

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August Macke (1887-1914) was a German Expressionist and avant-garde painter of cityscapes, landscapes, portraits and abstract compositions.

In early years, he experimented with many styles. Macke discovered the work of Henri Matisse and the other Fauvist artists while visiting Paris in 1909. This inspired Macke to use brighter, less-naturalistic colours, applied in broad brush-strokes. He also travelled through Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Tunisia. It was in Tunisia that he was joined by Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet. Here, he adopted luminist approach for a series of works, now considered masterpieces.

Despite his short life of 27 years, and active career of just eight years, he left behind more than 600 paintings and 9000 drawings of work, in oil and watercolour, charcoal and ink.

Bright colours flooded most of his work, and he is considered one of the true masters of colours. His focus was on expression and composition through colour, rather than attend to details. These resulted in extreme abstraction.

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VÄINÖ KUNNAS

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture

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Väinö Ilmari Kunnas (1896-1929) was a Finnish painter. During his short life span of 32 years, active art career was of just 10 years. His major works consist of urban scenes and portraits of cultural personalities. He began with little Realism, moved to Expressionism and to experimentation in abstraction. His architectural scenes are without human or animal presence. The architectural scapes and details, do not reflect his job as an architectural draftsman (even if, for a small period).

He first attended and graduated from an arts and crafts school in 1912. He then studied drawing till 1917 at the Vyborg art school. Kunnas moved to Helsinki and during 1920-21 studied at the Finnish Art Society drawing school. He also worked with architect J S Sirén.

‘Kunnas is regarded in Finnish painting as an interpreter of its own time, the 1920s’.

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OSCAR FLORIANUS BLUEMNER

 

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

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Oscar Florianus Bluemner (1867-1938) was a German born American painter. He was trained to be an architect at the Berlin Institute of Technology. He moved to Chicago in 1893 and in 101 to New York City to find work, but by 1910, he decided to pursue painting.

Bluemner loved primary colours and used these to simplify the image rather than add sense of abstraction. He once said, ‘I paint my attitude’ His early work consisted of romantic landscapes in water colour, but a trip to Europe in 1912 exposed him to many currents of modern arts like Fauvism and Cubism. He developed his own expressionist style. He ‘began to use brighter colours and sharper detail’. Most of his landscapes are about industrial buildings. He began to add mystical elements such as large suns and moons.

Bluemner always prepared his sketches on the site rather than using a camera like many of his contemporary artist. The habit of documenting the details gave him a keen insight and personalized manner of expression. He is acknowledged as an important modernist on the American art scene.

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