Blue Horse I 1911

Franz Marc conjured this blue horse with oil paints, sometime in the early 1900s, a time of great experimentation in art. Look how the colors aren't trying to be realistic, but more about feeling. Artmaking is a process of invention, and here we see Marc inventing a world. The paint itself is pretty smooth, not too thick, which lets the colors glow. Notice how the blue of the horse sort of hums against the yellows and reds in the background. It's like Marc is tuning his colors to make a chord, not just a picture. And see that dark blue line defining the horse's back? It's like he's saying, "This is a horse, but it's also a line, a shape, a color." It makes me think of Matisse, how he used color to create space and emotion. Art is a conversation, and Marc is right in there, talking about how we see and feel the world. It's not about being perfect, it's about being alive.