Thursday 31 March 2011

August Macke, 1887-1914



Lady in a Green Coat by August Macke


A man in Paris went to see a doctor.
“Doctor“, he pleaded, “you must help me. I’m so sad. I sit in my room all day long and the tears flow down my cheeks. I can’t stop weeping, I’m so sad”.
“Tush, tush!” dismissively replied the doctor. “This is nothing! The great clown Pagliacci is in town. Go and see him. He’ll cure you of your sadness”.
“But, doctor”, said the man pitifully. “I am Pagliacci”.


Louis-Ferdinand Céline wondered why we refuse to be cured of our loneliness. Albert Einstein believed that two things were infinite, the universe and human stupidity, though he wasn’t sure about the universe. John Lennon said that he was the walrus, goo goo g’joob. And German artist August Macke loved light, colour and beauty and was killed in the mud of the ‘Great War for the Civilisation of the World’, that universal mockery to human dignity.


Market in Tunisia by August Macke

Great Zoological Garden by August Macke

Kairouan by August Macke



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