Der Blaue Reiter

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Cover of Der Blaue Reiter almanac.

Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was a group of artists secessioning in Munich, Germany in 1911, from the Neue Künstlervereinigung München. Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Lyonel Feininger and others founded the group in response to the rejection of Kandinsky's painting Last Judgement from an exhibition by —another artists' group of which Kandinsky had been a member. Der Blaue Reiter lacked a central artistic manifesto, and was centred around Kandinsky and Marc. Artists Gabriele Münter and Paul Klee were also involved. Der Blaue Reiter was one of two groups of German painters fundamental to Expressionism, the other being Die Brücke, formed in Dresden in 1905.

Kandinsky's Der Blaue Reiter (1903).

The name Der Blaue Reiter derived from Marc's enthusiasm for horses, and from Kandinsky's love of the colour blue. For Kandinsky, blue is the colour of spirituality—the darker the blue, the more it awakens human desire for the eternal (see his 1911 book On the Spiritual in Art). Kandinsky had also titled a painting Der Blaue Reiter (see illustration) in 1903.

Within the group, artistic approaches and aims varied from artist to artist; however, the artists shared a common desire to express spiritual truths through their art. They believed in the promotion of modern art; the connection between visual art and music; the spiritual and symbolic associations of colour; and a spontaneous, intuitive approach to painting. Members were interested in European medieval art and primitivism, as well as the contemporary, non-figurative art scene in France. As a result of their encounters with cubist and Rayonist ideas, they moved towards abstraction.

Der Blaue Reiter organized exhibitions in 1911 and 1912 that toured Germany. They also published an almanac featuring contemporary, primitive and folk art, along with children's paintings. In 1913 they exhibited in the first German Herbstsalon.

The group was disrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Franz Marc and August Macke were killed in combat. Wassily Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin and Alexej von Jawlensky were forced to move back to Russia because of their Russian citizenship. There were also differences in opinions within the group. As a result, Der Blaue Reiter was short-lived, lasting for three years from 1911 to 1914.

An extensive collection of paintings by Der Blaue Reiter is exhibited in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich.

1 Members
2 First exhibition
3 Second exhibition
4 Der Blaue Reiter Almanac
5 Participations of the group
6 Resources
- 6.1 Notes
- 6.2 References

[edit] Members

[edit] First exhibition

December 18, 1911, the "First exhibition of the editorial board of Der Blaue Reiter" (Erste Ausstellung der Redaktion Der Blaue Reiter) opened at the Heinrich Thannhauser's Moderne Galerie in Munich, running through the first days of 1912. 43 works by 14 artists were shown: paintings by Henri Rousseau, Albert Bloch, David Burliuk, Wladimir Burliuk, Heinrich Campendonk, Robert Delaunay, Elisabeth Epstein, Eugen von Kahler, Wassily Kandinsky, August Macke, Franz Marc, Gabriele Münter, Jean Bloé Niestlé and Arnold Schönberg, and an illustrated cataloge edited.^[1]

From January 1912 through July 1914, the exhibition toured around Europe and saw venues in Cologne, Berlin, Bremen, Hagen, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Budapest, Oslo, Helsinki, Trondheim and Göteborg.^[2]

[edit] Second exhibition

February 12 through April 2, 1912, the "Second exhibition of the editorial board of Der Blaue Reiter" showed works in "Black & White" (Zweite Ausstellung der Redaktion Der Blaue Reiter, Schwarz-Weiß) at the "New Art" Gallery of Hans Goltz (Neue Kunst Hans Goltz) in Munich.^[3]

[edit] Der Blaue Reiter Almanac

Der Blaue Reiter, cover of the almanac, 1912

Conceived since June 1911, this Almanac was published in spring 1912, by Piper, Munich: May 11, Franz Marc received a first print. A second volume did not realize, instead of this a second edition was printed in 1914, again by Piper.^[4]

[edit] Participations of the group

Meanwhile the artists of Der Blaue Reiter participated in other mile-stone exhibitions:

1912 Cologne, Sonderbund westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler
1913 Berlin, Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon organised by Herwarth Walden and his gallery Der Sturm

[edit] Resources

[edit] Notes

^ Catalogue, reproduced in Hoberg & Friedel (1999), pp. 364-365.
^ Ortrud Westheider et alt.: Die Tournee der ersten Ausstellung des Blauen Reiters, in: Christine Hopfengart (2000), pp. 49-82
^ Catalogue?
^ Katharina Erling: Der Almanach Der Blaue Reiter, in: Hopfengart (2000), S. 188-239

[edit] References

John E. Bowlt, Rose-Carol Washton Long. The Life of Vasilii Kandinsky in Russian art : a study of "On the spiritual in art" by Wassily Kandinsky. Pub l. Newtonville, Mass. USA. 1980. ISBN 0-89250-131-6 ISBN 0-89250-132-4
Wassily Kandinsky, M. T. Sadler (Translator) Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Dover Publ. (Paperback). 80 pp. ISBN 0-486-23411-8. or: Lightning Source Inc. Publ. (Paperback). ISBN 1-4191-1377-1
Shearer West (1996). The Bullfinch Guide to Art. UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 0-8212-2137-X.

Hoberg, Annegret, & Friedel, Helmut (ed.): Der Blaue Reiter und das Neue Bild, 1909-1912, Prestel, München, London & New York 1999 ISBN 3-7913-2065-3
Hopfengart, Christine: Der Blaue Reiter, DuMont, Cologne 2000 ISBN 3-7701-5310-3

Western art movements