Der Blaue Reiter

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Lore & Background

The forerunner of Der Blaue Reiter was the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (N.K.V.M.), co-founded in 1909 and instigated by Marianne von Werefkin, Alexej von Jawlensky, Adolf Erbslöh, and Oscar Wittenstein. Kandinsky served as its first chairman. Disputes arose over Kandinsky's increasingly abstract painting, and in December 1911, his painting Composition V was rejected by the jury for the association's third exhibition. In response, Kandinsky, along with Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc, and others, formed a rival group and quickly organized a parallel exhibition at the same venue, the Thannhauser Gallery, in rooms adjacent to the official show. This breakaway group adopted the name Der Blaue Reiter. Years later, Kandinsky recalled: 'Our halls were close to the rooms of the NKVM exhibition. It was a sensation. Since I anticipated the "noise" in good time, I had prepared a wealth of exhibition material for the BR [Blaue Reiter]. So the two exhibitions took place simultaneously. (…) Revenge was sweet!' The exhibition was officially titled the First Exhibition of the Editorial Board of Der Blaue Reiter. The name of the movement is the title of a painting that Kandinsky created in 1903, but it is unclear whether it is the origin of the name as Professor Klaus Lankheit learned that the title of the painting had been overwritten. Kandinsky wrote 20 years later that the name is derived from Marc's enthusiasm for horses and Kandinsky's love of riders, combined with a shared love of the color blue. For Kandinsky, blue was the color of spirituality; the darker the blue, the more it awakened human desire for the eternal (as he wrote in his 1911 book On the Spiritual in Art).

Reader's Guide

Der Blaue Reiter was short-lived, lasting only from 1911 to 1914, but its influence was significant. 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 color; 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, Fauvist 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 returned to Russia, and Marianne von Werefkin and Alexej von Jawlensky fled to Switzerland. There were also differences in opinion within the group. As a result, Der Blaue Reiter was short-lived, lasting for only three years from 1911 to 1914. The end of Der Blaue Reiter also brought an end to Munich as a center of the avant-garde in modern art. The group's ideas were largely forgotten as the Nazis made an effort to denigrate many of the artists and their works. So-called 'degenerate art' was confiscated, sold abroad or destroyed. However, selling the paintings had unintended consequences, in that the paintings of Der Blaue Reiter became internationally famous and influential. After 1945, their ideas and concepts were reproduced more widely in other countries than in Germany. Artists from Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands, like Asger Jorn and the CoBrA group, carried on with Kandinsky's ideas.

Did You Know?

• The name 'Der Blaue Reiter' comes from a painting Kandinsky created in 1903, though it's unclear if that painting is the origin of the group's name because the painting's title was later overwritten.
• Kandinsky wrote that the name derived from Franz Marc's enthusiasm for horses and his own love of riders, combined with a shared love of the color blue.
• The almanac Der Blaue Reiter was first published in mid-May 1912 in an edition of approximately 1100 copies.
• The group's first exhibition in December 1911 featured 43 works by 14 artists, including paintings by Henri Rousseau, Robert Delaunay, and Arnold Schoenberg.
• After World War I, the Nazis labeled many Der Blaue Reiter artists as 'degenerate,' but selling their confiscated works abroad made the group internationally famous.