Donkey Rider 

Curator: "Donkey Rider," by August Macke, rendered with the flowing ease of watercolor. The details around when this work was created are a bit hazy but it fits into Macke's wider expressionist approach to landscapes and figures. Editor: Oh, it's immediately peaceful. The colors bleed into each other so gently, but also create these sharp angles in the architecture and plant life. Even the rider looks at peace. The way the watercolor is used gives this painting an ethereal glow that is calming. Curator: I’m fascinated by how Macke uses such seemingly simple, unblended blocks of color. Notice the building behind the rider? Patches of ochre, yellow and peach suggest sun-drenched walls. It’s almost like a stage set. The rider, a figure in ultramarine blue, is presented with such sparse economy of line but it doesn’t lack depth. Editor: Absolutely, it's deceptively complex! Blue has a rich history as a color of protection and piety. Combined with the red hat, could it indicate authority, or perhaps simply mark him as a traveler, bridging different worlds? This figure is clearly an archetype. Curator: Maybe so. Or perhaps he simply saw someone in blue and red against a landscape he wanted to capture. I wonder what inspired him to depict this particular scene in watercolor. Was it its quickness or how the watercolor allowed him to create a specific mood? What are the cultural memories, or dreamscapes, does this specific combination evoke? It really feels both otherworldly and profoundly intimate. Editor: Exactly! Watercolors often invoke childhood associations with freedom and fluidity and this really amplifies a dreamy perspective on landscape and its symbolic resonance. Curator: Looking closer, the washes also blur the line between reality and feeling. Even the stark, leafless trunks seem alive. So, do you think we solved any mystery here? Editor: Mysteries rarely get truly solved, but by focusing on symbols and how he interpreted the environment with watercolor, the painting really sings a story, a very personal vision with its own, let's say "symbolic tempo" for a rider, donkey, and setting bathed in that magical light. Curator: Couldn't have put it better. It just makes you want to find your own "symbolic tempo," doesn't it?