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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