Weasels Playing 1911

Franz Marc made ‘Weasels Playing’, with oil on canvas, but I don’t know exactly when. Looking at it, I get a sense of this incredible balance between control and letting go. The color palette is bold, but it's how Marc applies the paint that really grabs me. Notice the texture in the trees, they’re red, green, and black, and there's a real physicality to the medium. It's like he's wrestling with the paint, trying to capture something elusive. Then there are the weasels, darting through the undergrowth. For me, it all comes together in that dark line of a tree right in the centre. It acts like a visual anchor, but it also disrupts the space, pulling you in and pushing you away at the same time. Marc was part of the ‘Der Blaue Reiter’ group, who thought art should aim at spiritual truths. You can see a similar commitment to animal subjects and bold colours in the work of his friend, Kandinsky. Art isn’t about answers, it’s about endless questions.