Two Cats, Blue and Yellow 1912

Franz Marc painted these Two Cats, Blue and Yellow, with oil paint, but we don't know exactly when. The colours are doing a lot of the work here, aren’t they? The forms of the cats are built with shades of blue and yellow, but it feels like he is working out something about colour itself as a feeling, a sensation, a vibration. Look how the body of the blue cat is round, swollen with colour, and the spiralling brushstrokes on its back seem to wind into the picture plane, creating a kind of whirlpool effect. The colours don’t sit still. It’s like when you’re painting and you keep going over the same area, trying to get it right, but each layer changes it, makes it more alive. The Fauves come to mind, especially Matisse, who also used pure colour to convey emotion. With both artists there's this sense of endless exploration of colour and form, where fixed meanings dissolve.