Der blaue Reiter

In 1909 an artists association called the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (New Artists Association Munich) was established in Southern Germany. Munich is - as you know - the State Capital of Bavaria, one of the most southern situated German Federal States. Members of the Association were - among others - Paul Klee (1879-1940), August Macke (1887-1914) and Franz Marc (1880-1916).

In December of 1911, Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Gabriele Muenter (1877-1962), Franz Marc (1880-1916), Alexej Javlensky (1864-1941) and Alfred Kubin (1877-1959) presented their own works under the name of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in an exhibition at the Moderne Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser (Modern Gallery Heinrich Thannhauser) in Munich. The gallery belonged to the Munich art dealer Heinrich Thannhauser.

In 1912 Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc published an almanac also entitled Der Blaue Reiter.

Also in 1912 Der Blaue Reiter had their second exhibition at the Galerie Hans Goltz, Munich (see that catalog from the homepage of Michael Golz).

The group name Der Blaue Reiter was possibly chosen from W. Kandinsky's and F. Marc's love for horses and the color blue.

(Another important Munich art dealer was Franz-Josef Brakl (1854-1935), who opened his art gallery Brakl's Kunsthaus in 1913.)

Until the year 1914 the artists of Der Blaue Reiter developed the kind of painting we now call expressionism.

In 1914 World War I appeared on stage, grinning sneeringly from its ugly face and hitting these creative creatures with its iron fist, demanding the highest and most superfluous prey.