Crouching Deer 1911

Franz Marc made "Crouching Deer" with oil paint, and look at the traces he left! I imagine him circling the canvas, adding dark, raw strokes of ultramarine and black. The painting feels so sympathetic, I can almost feel the deer’s warm breath and stillness. Marc was so interested in animals; he wanted to represent their experience of the world. And he used color to do this: blue for spirituality, yellow for gentleness. Here, though, the colors feel muddier, more discordant, which communicates the deer's feelings of uncertainty. I am moved by the dark outlines around the shapes, the red ground, like an echo chamber resonating with all the anxieties of early twentieth-century life! The heavy strokes remind me of Van Gogh, another pioneer of abstract, emotional painting. Artists are always in conversation, aren't they? Trying to make sense of a senseless world.