This substantial, elegant, and well thought-out catalog accompanies an eponymous exhibition held recently at Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, in Munich, Germany. Scholarly essays are interspersed with 340 color images of the "degenerate" German expressionist Franz Marc's early, realistic, and affectionate works as well as of his later, radical blue horses; his infamous yellow cow (which also appears on the cover); his rangy tiger; and so many more of his trademark colorful animals. Included in this chronologically arranged catalog are commentary on Marc's life, samples of his correspondence, and interpretations of his unique symbolic language. Lead author Hoberg (curator, Städtische Galerie) also wrote Franz Marc: The Complete Works , a three-part catalog raisonné of the artist's oeuvre (Volumes 1 and 2 were published in 2004 and 2005; publication of Volume 3 is forthcoming). While comfortably funded libraries might purchase both of Hoberg's pricey works along with this attractive exhibition catalog, libraries on a tight budget would be well advised to invest only in this finely conceived, affordable volume. The images of animals are great for children. Recommended for academic and museum libraries.--Jennifer H. Krivickas, Yale Ctr. for British Art Lib., New Haven, CT

Best known for his paintings of horses, German expressionist Franz Marc (1880-1916) was a painter with a self-consciously intellectual bent, neither as revolutionary as Picasso nor as lyrical as Matisse. This thorough, carefully arranged retrospective (published along with an exhibition at the Lenbachhaus in Munich) traces his development from early pastoral scenes to later cubist-inspired canvases he created while part of the Blue Rider group he founded with Wassily Kandinsky; in the process, this catalogue clarifies the motivations of this very earnest painter. Particularly useful is an essay by Barbara Eschenburg, who sheds light on Marc's interest in Darwin and Nietzsche. Eschenburg shows how Marc's animals--typically embedded in a flat, crystalline-patterned space--represent an intuitive oneness with nature that has been lost to a Western culture obsessed with the individual. Annegret Hoberg provides a handy biographical overview, and Isabelle Jansen's essay explains Marc's attention to Egyptian, Japanese and other "exotic" cultures, considered at the time to represent an unspoiled ideal. With a more complete set of reproductions (including sketches and sculptures) than Mark Lawrence's 1989 study, Franz Marc , and more affordable than the ongoing multivolume Complete Works series, this is an excellent resource for both the scholar or the general reader. (May)