Monday, February 9, 2009

Blue

The Large Blue Horses, 1911
Franz Marc
oil on canvas
41-5/8 x 71-5/16 in.
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) expressionist group. The group formed around Kandinsky and Marc, who both considered blue the color of spirituality.(Stokstad, 1069). The artists of the group were joined by their common goals with manifested themselves in loosely connected visuality. Yet a significant similarity in their work focused on the intensity of color. Marc painted animals rather than people because he believed they had a stronger spiritual relationship with nature. His animals, like the horses in this painting flow and merge with their natural surroundings.