Birds 1914

Franz Marc made this large oil painting, ‘Birds,’ sometime in the early 20th century. The materials are relatively straightforward: paint squeezed from tubes, applied to canvas with brushes. But the effect is anything but conventional. Note how the painting is all broken into sharp facets of pure color. These prismatic shapes lock together to give the sense of crystalline forms, with the birds themselves almost camouflaged in the visual field. Marc’s labor here involved not just skillful handling of paint, but also a conscious application of the formal language of Cubism. This radical painting style was very much of its moment, reflecting a society in the throes of industrial and political upheaval. And it is remarkable to consider that, despite being so resolutely modern, this painting is still made by hand, brushstroke by brushstroke. It prompts us to rethink the relationship between the handmade and the machine-made, the natural and the artificial.