Der Blaue Reiter Across Borders

A transcultural project between local tradition and European colonialism.

“The whole work, called art, knows no borders and peoples, but humanity.” This credo was formulated by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc in 1912 in their almanac “Der Blaue Reiter,” in which their interest in Bavarian and Russian folk art, Japanese woodcuts, children’s drawings, contemporary music, and works from Oceania, Mexico, and Egypt is apparent.

Kandinsky and Marc were two members of the Blaue Reiter, an association of artists who were active at the beginning of the 20th century in Germany, specifically in Munich and the Alpine foothills, as well as in international networks. For them, abstract and representational forms stood side by side on equal footing, as long as they were felt with “inner necessity.”

In this talk, Dr. Melanie Vietmeier will discuss the internationality and utopias of some members of the Blaue Reiter against the backdrop of increasing nationalism, the role of women artists in the group, and the impact of colonialism on the Blaue Reiter’s understanding of art itself.

Dr. Melanie Vietmeier is head of the collection and curator for the Blaue Reiter and the Kubin Archive at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau Munich, which houses the world’s largest collection of art by this group of artists.