Franz Marc: Tierschicksale et al.

Recent reading in photography has, as might be expected, led me to some art I had not seen. I know very little about visual art, and last night I saw Franz Marc’s painting, The Fate of the Animals (click for large version), for the first time. Marc is considered to be one of the principle artists of the German Expressionist movement.

He died a soldier in the First World War. This painting, which he had made before the war, was later sent to him as a postcard. After receiving it, he wrote his wife:

It is like a premonition of this war, horrible and gripping; I can hardly believe that I painted it!…It is artistically logical to paint such pictures before wars, not as dumb reminiscences afterward…

I too found the image gripping, and it reminded me of Peter Howson.

I am not very good at making clever statements about war. This drawing is the first idea that came into my head. This is the face of the monster of War which feeds on human flesh. It is death.

Howson, who was commissioned to go to Bosnia during their civil war, was speaking about this drawing:

No punchline. Just thought I’d share.