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March Monthly Challenge

Deer In the Forest, 1911

Marc Franz
Oil on Canvas, 100.97 x 104.78 cm
Philips Collection, Washington DC, USA
(Please note this art is copyrighted and is to be used only as inspiration.)

About the Art
“Amidst and integrated with the form of the deer is a panoply of force lines and transparent planes; an underlying organization of these exists in the pattern of parallel diagonals moving downward from the right and left edge, meeting in the middle. A secondary pattern exists in the rectilinear planes of color on the left opposing circular patterns on the right. while a blue mountain is absent, a smaller triangle encloses two of the deer; it and the blue tree at the left edge provide an uplifting quality. Contrasting the blue is the intense red throughout the center of the picture, oranges at top and bottom, and the feathery black in the upper right.
The all-over organization of the canvas uniting animal to landscape, diminishes the heroism of the animal subject as depicted by Marc in 1911. Supporting Marc’s latest conception of the world was Wilhelm Ostwald’s theory of energy, in which matter is considered illusory. Only energy lines reveal appearance such as it is. In Deer in the Forest, this conception results in an energized atmosphere of randomness and chaos. the sense of an inchoate environment demonstrates both Marc’s feeling of the world as a whole and his developing urge to represent Creation, and aspiration that is present in the works of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.”

About the Artist

Franz Marc (February 8, 1880 – March 4, 1916) was a German painter and printmaker, one of the key figures of the German Expressionist movement. He was a founding member of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a journal whose name later became synonymous with the circle of artists collaborating in the journal.
Franz Marc contributed to the vision of abstraction in its second wave, 1911-14, by wedding an Expressionistic outlook to the new pictorial developments emanating from France. There, formal innovations were largely an end in themselves. But in the hands of Franc Marc and Wassily Kandinsky, arbitrary color, faceted planes, and pictorial structure became modes with which certain deeply held themes could be stated. Marc’s achievement was in effect creating works of art that, through abstract means, evinced his conception of the overall unity and character of nature. 
As a founder of the Blue Rider, Marc holds a place in the theoretical impact of this pivotal movement of future developments, such as Dada, and Bauhaus. More specifically, Marc was to have an influence on his colleague Paul Klee. the latter described their relationship as a pair of overlapping circles, with a “relatively large common area.” Although a year younger, Marc reached artistic maturity ahead of Klee. In general, the overall delicacy of touch and transparency in Marc’s watercolors are close to the work of Klee after 1914. Also, certain motifs appear fist in Marc’s work and subsequently in Klee’s; for example, Marc’s use of triangles and upward-moving forms to imply aspiration became a constant in Klee’s art. The two shared much in common theoretically, especially the desire to see through a transcendent vantage point. reinforcing their common belief in fate was the fact that, on the day Klee received word from Maria Marc of his friend’s death, he was drafted. 
The desire by the German wave of abstractionists to unite the new pictorial means from France with ambitious or transcendent subject matter, or both, quickly became the goal of subsequent movements of twentieth-century abstraction. While Marc was not alone in possessing lofty aspirations, he and Wassily Kandinsky established a critically important step in making Cubist and Fauvist harmonies apply to an elevated concept of subject matter. For instance, the desire for the content of epic proportions became a touchstone in the work of Kasimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, and then, among American Abstract-Expressionists Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.

Blog Tour
The Blog Tour deadline is March 27th.
Links must be added to the Art Bead Scene flickr page where you upload your entry
The Blog Tour will be on March 29th.

Monthly Challenge Winners
Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on March 1st.
Our Sponsors
Our Sponsors this month are Mamacita Beadworks and Indian Creek Art Glass.
Please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!
Featured Designer of the Week:
From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.
How to enter the Monthly Challenge:
1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork. 
An Art Bead must be used in your piece to qualify for the monthly challenge.
***Beads strung on a chain, by themselves and beads simply wire or cord will not be accepted.***
2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.
Please add the tag or title March ABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.
Deadline is January 31st. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn’t followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.
What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.
***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***
p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.

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7 Comment

  1. freshbakeddesigns
    March 4, 2013 at 4:57 pm

    Wow, Nellie!! Can't wait to see what comes from this painting!

  2. Tari of ClayButtons.com
    March 4, 2013 at 5:26 pm

    I know! Isn't it great!!

  3. Michelle
    March 4, 2013 at 10:29 pm

    What a stunning painting. I don't even know where to start. Thanks for such a great inspiration!

  4. Beaditi
    March 5, 2013 at 6:24 pm

    What a fun piece of artwork – looking forward to working with the 2013 spring pantones palette !
    Kaushambi

  5. Kashmira
    March 5, 2013 at 11:41 pm

    Goodness! this is really beautiful! the colors…love at first sight!

  6. Grubbi
    March 6, 2013 at 5:15 am

    Ooo love Mark Franz…one of my favourite artists!

  7. Caroline Gilbert
    March 6, 2013 at 7:21 am

    Great work. Looking forward to see great art work.
    Would love to place that art work on my site. See if those people can find best value for what they are doing. My Site to and sell art online ARTORCA

Comments are closed.