Der Blaue Reiter
Blue Rider German Expressionist Art Movement,
Founded by Kandinsky.
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Der Blaue Reiter
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Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) (1911-14)
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EVOLUTION
OF VISUAL ART |
Style of Expressionism Unlike the more coherent Die Brucke group, Blue Rider remained a loose association of expressionist painters, with no unified style, except possibly a spiritual rather than a Die Brucke-style earthly focus in their painting. Although in 1912 Kandinsky and Marc published their Almanach Der Blaue Reiter, a collection of essays on art, the group had no artistic program, being no more than a cluster of fellow-travellers interested in things like reviving the spiritual value of art, the psychological use of colour in painting (especially blue, which reportedly had a special meaning for Kandinsky), and primitive art and culture. The group's core members numbered only five: Kandinsky and Marc, plus Paul Klee (1879-1940), August Macke (1887-1914), and the 'Russian Matisse' - Alexei von Jawlensky (1864-1941). Many other artists participated in Blaue Reiter exhibitions, including the Dutch expressionist Heinrich Campendonk (1889-1957), the Fauvists Andre Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, the Russians Vladimir and David Burlyuk (1882-1967), Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, and Kandinsky's partner Gabriele Munter (1887-1914), however it is the five core members who personify the notion of a group. |
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Exhibitions The first official Blaue Reiter art exhibition opened in Munich at the Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, in December 1911. In March 1912, it travelled to Berlin where it inaugurated the Sturm Gallery, followed by Cologne and Frankfurt. A second exhibition followed in 1912, at the Hans Goltz Gallery, in Munich. There were no further 'official' shows of the group, but all five core members were active in the general expressionist movement: they were represented at the great Sonderbund Exhibition in Cologne, in 1912, and the acclaimed First German Salon d'Automne Exhibition at the Sturm Gallery in Berlin, in 1913. The group was dispersed by the effects of World War I. August Macke was killed in 1914, Franz Marc in 1916, while Jawlensky fled to Switzerland. Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky joined the Bauhaus Design school as instructors under Walter Gropius (1883-1969). In 1924, these three - at the suggestion of the German art dealer Galka Scheyer (1889-1945) - joined with the German-American painter Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) to form Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four), as a sort of umbrella brand under which to market their paintings in the USA. Exhibitions were held in Mexico and America. Later, during the 1930s several Blue Rider artists were banned by the authorities during the Nazi campaign against Degenerate Art ("entartete kunst"). Finally, in 1949, a retrospective exhibition of works by the Der Blaue Reiter expressionist group was organized in Munich. See also: History of Expressionist Painting (c.1880-1930). Blaue Reiter Works Important paintings which exemplify this particular pre-war idiom of German Expressionism include: Wassily Kandinsky Franz Marc Alexei von Jawlensky August Macke Key Collections Although works by Blaue Reiter artists hang in many of the world's best art museums, good collections can be viewed at these institutions: - Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California For a later German Expressionist style, see: Die Neue Sachlichkeit. |
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