In the bazaar 1914

August Macke made this small watercolor painting, called ‘In the bazaar’, sometime before his death in 1914. It’s a riot of colors – yellows, blues, reds, and greens – all jostling together to create a busy market scene. I imagine Macke, fresh off the streets, quickly laying down washes of color, trying to capture the feeling of the place. It's like he's in a race against time, trying to pin down the shifting light, the patterns, the people. The paint is thin, almost translucent, allowing the white of the paper to shine through. Look at the way he's used stripes and geometric shapes to suggest fabric, architecture, and the human form. It’s not about perfect representation, but about capturing the essence of the bazaar – its vibrancy, its energy, its sense of organised chaos. It makes me think of Matisse and other painters who were trying to find new ways of seeing. It's like they're all talking to each other across time, and space, ya know?