Der Blaue Reiter

Der Blaue Reiter, organization of artists based in Germany that contributed greatly to the development of abstract art. Neither a movement nor a school with a definite program, Der Blaue Reiter was a loosely knit organization of artists that organized group shows between 1911 and 1914.

After resigning from the Neue Künstlervereinigung-München (“New Artists’ Society-Munich”), artists Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, and Franz Marc organized a show entitled “First Exhibition by the Editors of the Blue Rider,” which was held December 1911 to January 1912 at the Moderne Galerie Tannhäuser, Munich. Forty-three works were shown by 14 artists, including, in addition to Kandinsky and Marc, Henri Rousseau, David and Vladimir Burlyuk, Albert Bloch, and August Macke. The work of these artists was diverse, but it generally reflected an interest in free experimentation and spiritual expression.

The first exhibition received a mixed critical and public reception, but other artists were drawn to the group’s expressive freedom and eagerly volunteered to take part in a second group exhibition devoted largely to graphic art. Held in February 1912, this second show included 315 works by over 30 international artists, including Paul Klee, André Derain, Jean Arp, Georges Braque, Maurice de Vlaminck, Mikhail Larionov, Natalya Goncharova, and Pablo Picasso. By this time it was clear that Der Blaue Reiter artists were expressionistically oriented, as was the earlier German organization Die Brücke; but, unlike Die Brücke, their expressionism took the form of lyrical abstraction. Wishing to give form to mystical feelings, these artists wanted to imbue their art with deep spiritual content. Der Blaue Reiter painters were variously influenced by the Jugendstil group, Cubism, Futurism, and “naive” folk art.

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The position of the group became evident in Der Blaue Reiter Almanach, published in May 1912 and edited by Kandinsky and Marc (the group’s name was taken from this almanac in advance of its publication). The almanac featured essays by various artists as well as reproductions of works of primitive and folk art.

The two Blaue Reiter exhibitions traveled throughout Europe from 1912 to 1914. The almanac was also widely read during this time, further spreading the group’s ideas. The group’s final exhibition took place at the famous Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin, where their work was included in a show called the “First German Salon d’Automne,” held in September 1913. At that time the German-American artist Lyonel Feininger became affiliated with the group, and the Russian painter Alexey von Jawlensky, though not officially a member of Der Blaue Reiter, supported its aims. With the outbreak of World War I and the deaths of Marc and Macke at the front, Der Blaue Reiter dispersed. While the general public never embraced the radical visual ideas of the movement, the ideas and writings of Der Blaue Reiter artists helped lay the groundwork for a generation of avant-garde experimentation, especially abstraction.

In 1924 Feininger, Kandinsky, Klee (all of whom were teaching at the Weimar Bauhaus at the time), and Jawlensky formed a successor group, Die Blaue Vier (“The Blue Four”). Members of that group were united by a desire to exhibit together rather than by a similarity of style. They exhibited their work together from 1925 to 1934, but they were not nearly as influential as Der Blaue Reiter.