(1887-1914)

Bright yellow, bright red, vivid blue: The intensity and unique brightness of the colours are typical of August Macke works. Macke pictures shows an intact world and people. August Macke was a painter man of the Rhenish exuberance and perhaps for this reason today, he is one of the most famous German painters of the 20th Century.

Macke was a member of the artists association "Blue Rider" and most important representatives of the Rhenish expressionism. He is considered as the greatest German true talent for colours of his generation. He is one of the greats in the art of the 20th Century with his drawings, sketches and drafts.

August Macke, born on 1.3.1887 in Meschede, began his studies at the school and academy in Dusseldorf, but broke it prematurely. On trips to France, Italy and the Netherlands, he studied the Impressionists. With the artists of the "Blue Rider", whom he knew since 1911 several times and participated in the eponymous Almanac. Financial backing was secured by his sponsor Bernhard Koehler, an uncle of his wife Elisabeth.

Macke had already found his style of unmistakable individuality. Analytical Cubism oriented tectonic composition of Cézanne and Matisse's two-dimensionality he combined with the pure colours of fauvism. The prismatic colours were the main elements with which August Macke composed his paintings. In this context the colours are scales of colourful shapes as the tones and chords of the musicians. His friendship in 1910 with Franz Marc allowed a stay at Tegernsee Lake. Pictures created here showed Macke's isensitivity to lighting effects, the famous Tunis journey increased in watercolours created in 1914 with Paul Klee and Louis Moillet. The Simplification of form and the luminosity of the colours label this series of works.

On the Cologne Sonderbund exhibition organized by Macke in 1913, were show his Rhenish Expressionists works for the first time together with those of the European avant-garde.

Together with his wife Elisabeth and his son Walter Macke lived in Switzerland since 1913. The family happiness last only briefly. At the beginning of the war August Macke was in battles with Perthes-les-Hurlus in Champagne on 09/26/1914. His friend Franz Marc commented: "The greedy war is a hero's death richer, but the German art hero have become poorer."