5 traces of Der Blaue Reiter / The Blue Rider in Munich

The Blue Rider movement played an important role in German expressionist art in the early 20th century. The group was influenced by two painters: Moscow-born Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and Munich-born Franz Marc (1880-1916). The comprehensive exhibition in Lenbachhaus tells the movement’s story and includes major artworks by related artists.

Various major works by Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky, Alexei Jawlensky and August Macke, who founded The Blue Rider are exhibited in the Pinakothek der Moderne.

The Münter House in picturesque Murnau am Staffelsee in Upper Bavaria was an important place of inspiration for the new artistic movement. It also became an important meeting place of the avant-garde. Definitely a good place to start if you are planning a trip to the surrounding area.

Kandinsky recalled the following: “We invented Der Blaue Reiter while sitting at the coffee table, in the gazebo. We both loved blue, Marc the horses, I liked the riders”. There used to be a summer house in the rear garden at Ainmillerstrasse, in which Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter lived together without being married. It was considered quite scandalous at the time.

Heinrich Thannhauser’s Moderne Galerie, in the beautiful Arco-Zinnenberg Palace, hosted the first exhibition of the work of Der Blaue Reiter. The response to the exhibition was mixed. Its importance for art history only became clear much later. The gallery closed in 1928. Heinrich Thannhauser died in 1934 on the German-Swiss border, while fleeing the Nazi regime.