The Church of St. Mary in Bonn in Snow 1911

August Macke made this painting, The Church of St. Mary in Bonn in Snow, with oil on canvas, and it’s really something. The rooftops are covered in thick dollops of white paint, a simple but effective shorthand for snow, and the buildings are geometric and blocky. I can imagine him looking out of a window, squinting, trying to capture the way the light bounces off the snow. Macke was part of the German Expressionist group, Der Blaue Reiter, and you can see that interest in bold colors and simplified forms here. The sky is an odd grayish blue, the buildings ochre, mustard, and pale green. His application of paint seems quick, instinctive, and uncomplicated. Macke died young in World War I, but he left behind a body of work that feels both modern and timeless. He reminds me a little of some early work by Alex Katz, in its simplification and interest in surface. Painters today are constantly in conversation with the past, borrowing, stealing, and reinterpreting what came before.