Der Blaue Reiter
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Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was a group of expressionist artists established in Munich in 1911.
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, to an exhibition. Gabriele Münter and Paul Klee were also involved. The group, that had no clear manifesto, centered around Kandinsky and Marc.
The name, Der Blaue Reiter, derived from Marc's enthusiasm for horses and Kandinsky's love of the color blue. Kandinsky had also done an artwork of the same name (der Blaue Reiter) in 1903.
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.
Their approaches and aims varied from artist to artist, however they 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 spirtual 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.
Due to their contacts with cubist and Rayonist ideas they moved toward abstraction, and finally disbanded because of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 when Kandinsky moved back to Russia.
An extensive collection of paintings by the Der Blaue Reiter group is exhibited in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich, Germany.