Macke, August

1887-1914
Macke, August Biography

German Expressionist oil painter, a prominent member of Der Blaue Reiter, a group of Expressionist artists that was centred in Munich.

August Macke was born in Meschede, Westphalia, and trained at the Dusseldorf Kunstakademie between 1904 and 1906. This was followed in 1907-1908 by a period of study in Berlin. August Macke was greatly influenced by the expressive colours of both the Fauvists and Robert Delaunay, whose artwork he saw on his visits to Paris in 1907 and 1912. After meeting Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky in Munich, he co-founded Der Blaue Reiter in 1911. In 1914 August Macke traveled to Tunis with Paul Klee, and there he painted a series of art works that place the subject upon a grid of various pure colours. These oil paintings demonstrate the effect that Orphic Cubism had upon Macke and number among his most widely admired works. August Macke was killed in action in World War I.

August Macke made a highly significant, if short-lived, contribution to German Expressionism. Unlike Kandinsky, who attempted to express a spiritual reality beyond the physical world, Macke produced little abstract work, concentrating instead on lyrical images of the natural world.

You can buy August Macke fine art reproduction oil paintings at Galerie Dada. Just click on the 'Back' button.

Back to Catalog