Member-only story
The Brilliant Artist Who Never Stopped Evolving — Until Tragedy Struck
An inspiring model of creative growth
When looking at art, it can sometimes be useful to loosen your conscious mind — the part that rushes to ask questions and hurries to answer them — and engage the power of your sensory perceptions instead.
If you look at the paintings of German artist August Macke in this way — letting your eyes adjust to the play of vivid colours and rhythmic structures — then his images do what all great artworks do: they press on your perceptions and lodge there, fastening in your memory. A painting like Girls under trees (above), made in 1914, works by using harmonies, repetitions and echoes to achieve its effect.
For Macke, the search to locate this unique style was a long one.
On the way, he passed through phases of Impressionism and Fauvism, along with aspects of Cubism and Futurism. When he eventually found his mode, he enjoyed only a few months of fully-fledged originality before it was suddenly cut short: he died just aged 27.
The loss is all the more poignant because Macke’s work was clearly opening up onto a sunlit expanse of innovation that undoubtedly would have led to a greater flowering of his art. His existing work becomes all the more precious as a result, not…
