St. George 1912

August Macke made this painting of St. George sometime before 1914 using oils, and it’s like he's laying down a dream. The colours are so immediate, so evocative, but the forms are loose, suggestive, not trying to pin anything down. Look at the way he’s rendered the horse, a vibrant orange, almost pulsating against the softer hues around it. You can almost feel the brushstrokes, the texture of the paint, like Macke's in a hurry, capturing a fleeting moment of energy. He lays down the colours with a kind of urgency. And that dragon! It's rendered in blues and greens, with a red gash underneath, suggesting the final blow. You can really see how the physicality of the medium shapes our emotional experience. The colours aren't just colours, they're feelings, impulses. There's a sense that art is always in conversation, artists bouncing ideas off each other across time, each adding their own layer to the ongoing story.