From Library Journal
A casualty of World War I, Franz Marc was a pioneer of German Expressionism and co-founder with Wassily Kandinsky of the Blue Rider, which was both a publication and coalition of artists. His most famous images are paintings of blue horses, which are meant to convey the spiritual essence of nature lost to modern man and a personal symbolism of color. Rosenthal curated a 1979 Franz Marc exhibition at the University of California, Berkeley, and has expanded this text from his catalog of that show. His 44-page essay covers biographical and aesthetic aspects briefly but cogently. The text is followed by a 66-page full-color spread of paintings, one to a page. This provides an excellent concentrated visual reference on Franz Marc for students of modern art that would be hard to find in many other sources.- Hara L. Seltzer, NYPLCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
Now available in paperback, this overview of a brief but brilliant career focuses on the symbolic poignancy of Franz Marc’s paintings and his underlying vision of a world populated largely by animals. Before his tragic death at Verdun in 1916, Franz Marc made an enormous contribution to German Expressionist painting. A co-founder with Wassily Kandinsky of the Blue Rider Group, Marc and his fellow artists sought to make sense of the destruction around them through symbolism and abstraction. The curator of America’s first exhibition of Marc’s paintings, Marc Rosenthal offers penetrating insight into the artist’s transcendent paintings, in which feelings of despair and exaltation are brought to life through images of animals, landscapes, and pure abstraction. Seventy-one full-color plates demonstrate the brilliant tones and bold style that characterize Marc’s work. The accompanying text provides an important biographical perspective and critical appraisal of one of the most significant artists to emerge amid the chaos of early twentieth century Europe.