Fighting Forms

1914

Oil on canvas, 91 × 131.5 cm. Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen – Sammlung Moderne Kunst in der Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

A red mass and a dark blue mass swirl into each other at the center of the canvas. It marks a turn away from the solid animal bodies he painted only a few years before.

Look for the thin white loops spinning through the dark side, against the jagged points of the red.
Fine drawn lines run over broad areas of color, adding speed to the clash.
No animal is clearly shown, though a beak-like hook appears in the red; the struggle is carried mainly by color, curve and direction, close to full abstraction.
Maria Marc inherited it on the artist's death in 1916 and kept it until the Bavarian state collections bought it from her in 1949.

Image: Wikimedia Commons (scan: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich) · PD-Art