August Macke

August Macke painted a bright, happy world: people strolling in parks, women looking in shop windows, zoo visitors and bathers, in clear blocks of pure colour. He is one of the leading painters of the Blue Rider circle in German Expressionism, though his mood is much lighter than most of his friends’.

Born in Meschede, he grew up in Cologne and Bonn and studied in Düsseldorf. In 1910 he met Franz Marc, who became a close friend, and through him Wassily Kandinsky. He was influenced by the colour experiments of Robert Delaunay. In April 1914 he travelled to Tunisia with Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet, and the watercolours from that trip are among his finest works. He was killed in the first weeks of the First World War, aged 27. His work is in the Lenbachhaus in Munich, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne and the Kunstmuseum Bonn.

In Circus and A Street, look at how he builds figures and space from flat, glowing patches of colour.