I don't know about you, but for myself I'm still in the state of drowsy mental torpor that goes with cold weather and a long (though in my case work-punctuated) Christmas break. Today I stirred sufficiently to note that it's the birthday of the German painter August Macke (born in 1887). Macke's best-known works are his joyous semi-abstract semi-expressionist paintings inspired by the light and colour of Tunisia (they sometimes even turn up as greetings cards). The beautifully modulated and balanced work above - Abschied (Farewell)- is lit by a colder northern light and strikes a more sombre note. It was in fact the last painting he finished, before his death on the front, at Champagne, in the second week of World War I. As always with such brutally early deaths of gifted artists, you wonder what more he might have achieved...
Sunday, 3 January 2010
August Macke
I don't know about you, but for myself I'm still in the state of drowsy mental torpor that goes with cold weather and a long (though in my case work-punctuated) Christmas break. Today I stirred sufficiently to note that it's the birthday of the German painter August Macke (born in 1887). Macke's best-known works are his joyous semi-abstract semi-expressionist paintings inspired by the light and colour of Tunisia (they sometimes even turn up as greetings cards). The beautifully modulated and balanced work above - Abschied (Farewell)- is lit by a colder northern light and strikes a more sombre note. It was in fact the last painting he finished, before his death on the front, at Champagne, in the second week of World War I. As always with such brutally early deaths of gifted artists, you wonder what more he might have achieved...
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Happy New Year Nige! Trust you had a good'un. Yes, I'm waiting for the drowsy cold weather torpor to thaw - looking forward to the drowsy warm weather torpor.
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