Cathedral of Freiburg in Switzerland 1914

Editor: This is August Macke’s "Cathedral of Freiburg in Switzerland," painted in 1914. The mood is definitely muted and gray, but those strong geometric shapes and bursts of color somehow manage to make it feel hopeful too. What leaps out at you when you look at this piece? Curator: Ah, Macke! It’s like peering into a dream of a city, isn’t it? For me, it’s the tension between the traditional – that cathedral spire – and the modern, almost jarring lines and colors he uses. It’s pre-war, 1914…you can almost sense the unease, that tipping point. Do you feel that at all? It's like he is trying to capture the past but cannot ignore the modern world. Editor: I think I see what you mean; there’s that tall metal structure that dwarfs the Cathedral. So, the painting depicts the old and the new worlds at once? Curator: Precisely! It is almost like he’s asking: can these two worlds co-exist? And his Fauvist leaning - look at those blocks of raw color – red against the grays - almost feels defiant. Like shouting against the impending silence. Macke has an almost childlike simplicity combined with this…knowing. What do you think he *knew*? Editor: It’s hard to say exactly. The way he juxtaposes elements in such a stark way, it definitely creates this unsettled feeling like the world is about to change…or crumble. It’s there in the architecture and color. It's also the sense of something ending. Curator: Yes, and of something new, something maybe not quite formed. A fantastic collision between then and what was coming. That spire could be falling, or reaching…What a thought. Editor: This gives me so much more to think about, especially considering the historical context of the painting. It gives it even more feeling now. Curator: Precisely, art, or any artistic expression is the product of one's time, not divorced from it. Hopefully this gives people an angle from which to experience this amazing painting, too.