August Macke

August Macke , 1887-1914, German painter. Trained in Germany, he made several trips to Paris, where he came in contact with impressionism and the fauvist and cubist painters. A brilliant colorist, he joined the artists Franz Marc and Kandinsky and exhibited with the Blaue Reiter group. In 1914 he traveled with Paul Klee to Tunisia. There he created watercolors of a fine transparency with subtle prismatic patterns. Macke had barely finished Farewell (Cologne) when he was conscripted. He was killed in World War I.

Macke, August (1887–1914) German painter. He was a prominent member of the Blaue Reiter group, and specialized in sensitive watercolours. During visits to Paris (1907–12), he was influenced by Robert Delaunay and by experimental groups, notably fauvism and orphism. His own work remained basically in the style of expressionism.

Macke, August (1887–1914). German Expressionist painter. His training included a period studying with Corinth in Berlin. Between 1907 and 1912 he visited Paris several times and he came closer in spirit to French art than any other German painter of his time, evolving a personal synthesis of Impressionism, Fauvism, and Orphism (he met Robert Delaunay in 1912). His subjects were generally light-hearted, without any of the angst associated with other Expressionists, and although his colour was bright it was never strident; often he showed people enjoying themselves. In 1909–10 he met Kandinsky and Franz Marc in Munich and in 1911 he joined them in forming the Blaue Reiter, but apart from a few experiments his work moved less towards abstraction than that of other members of the group. Early in 1914 he made a trip with Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet to Tunisia, and the watercolours he did there are considered his finest achievements. He was killed in action in the First World War.