Der Blaue Reiter

Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was a group of expressionist artists established in Munich in 1911.

Related Topics:
Expressionist - Munich - 1911

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Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke and others founded the group in response to Neue Künstlervereinigung's (another artists' group of which Kandinsky was a member) rejection of Kandinsky's painting Last Judgement from an exhibition. Gabriele Münter and Paul Klee were also involved. The group, which had no clear manifesto, was centred around Kandinsky and Marc.

Related Topics:
Wassily Kandinsky - Franz Marc - August Macke - Gabriele Münter - Paul Klee

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

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Der Blaue Reiter organized exhibitions in 1911 and 1912 which 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.

Related Topics:
1911 - 1912 - 1913

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Their approaches and aims varied from artist to artist; however, they all sought to express spiritual truths through their art. They believed in the promotion of modern art and 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.

Related Topics:
Medieval art - Primitivism - France

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As a result of their encounters with cubist and Rayonist ideas, they moved towards abstraction. They finally disbanded because of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, whereupon Kandinsky moved back to Russia.

Related Topics:
Cubist - Rayonist - 1914

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

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