Monkey Frieze by Franz Marc

One of the greatest artists of all time, Franz Marc had a deep belief in the sanctity of animals and the fact that they carried a form of godliness that man had let slip off his fingers

He was born during a tumultuous time but found solace in his paintings. The ‘Monkey Frieze’was a painting that depicted seven monkeys in motion with a splash of brown, yellow, blue and green abstract expressionism.

Franz used blue to depict strength and yellow to express feminism his paintings to create a wonderful blend of bold colors. The painting is dated back in 1911 and used cubism, a form of art seen in most abstract paintings worshiped in the modern day.

Despite his deep knowledge of animal anatomy, Franz devoted more of his energy to the expression the paintings created. The monkeys were an expression of freedom and movement which was understandable thanks to the war that the Germans were involved in.

Franz studied his form of art under Wilhelm von Diez and Gabriel von Hackl at the academy of Fine Arts in Munich where he enrolled himself at the age of 20. He, however, visited Paris in 1903 and subsequently 1907 where he learned techniques from the masters of old in the art. He was privileged to meet quite a number of artists including Vincent van Gogh, August Macke and Sarah Bernhardt.

His love for the use of color was however influenced by Robert Delaunay, who used cubism and futuristic art in most of his paintings. Franz boasts of over 130 animal paintings and other woodcut and lithographic arts.

Despite the challenge of being an artist at such a hard time under a regime that had no regard for his form of art, Franz managed to fall under a list of artists that the NAZI regime felt needed protection from the war to safeguard art. The order came too late since he succumbed to a head injury from a bombshell on the 4th of March 1916 and died.