Art in the Library: Die Fuchse (The Fox)

Die Fuchse, 1913 (The Fox)

Venture up the steps into the “quiet zone” and you’ll find Die Fuchse (The Fox) gracing the wall to your right. This piece was created by painter and printmaker, Franz Marc, in 1913. Marc often used animals as subjects in his expressionistic, almost abstract, style and used a “well-defined symbology of colour” in which red, yellow, and blue represented specific emotions. He was heavily influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, the Cubists, Expressionists, Henry Matisse, and later Vasily Kandinsky.

Franz Marc, 1910

In 1910, Marc met Kandinsky and became a member of the New Artists’ Association (Neue Künstlervereinigung München). In 1911, this group split and Marc and Kandinsky formed The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter), an association of German Expressionist artists that hosted exhibitions in Munich and edited and published The Blue Rider Almanac in 1912. It was during this time that his work became more abstract, as seen in The Fox. His work evolved from round, impressionistic pieces to paintings with more “faceted space and forms”, in an attempt to “express the brutal power and timorous fragility” of animals.

In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Marc immediately enlisted. He died in combat 2 years later near Verdun-sur-Meuse, France.

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