»Das ganze Werk, Kunst genannt, kennt keine Grenzen und Völker, sondern die Menschheit.« So schrieben es Franz Marc und Wassily Kandinsky 1911 für ihren Almanach Der Blaue Reiter. Dieses programmatische Jahrbuch etablierte den Blauen Reiter (ca. 1911–1914) als einen der ersten transnationalen Künstler*innenkreise. Und dieses Credo inspirierte das Lenbachhaus dazu, das Werk der beteiligten Künstler*innen – unter ihnen Gabriele Münter, Alfred Kubin, Maria Marc und Elisabeth Epstein – nicht nur ästhetisch und historisch, sondern in seinen geistigen, sozio-ökonomischen sowie politischen Zusammenhängen zu betrachten. Denn nicht nur mit Worten, sondern auch mit Bildern und Taten setzte sich der Kreis des Blauen Reiter für ein globales, gleichberechtigtes Kunstverständnis ein. Gefangen in der Zeit der kolonialen Weltordnung vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg, gelang es allerdings auch ihnen nicht, eine emanzipatorische Praxis von Kunst jenseits nationaler Zugehörigkeit sowie tradierter Hierarchien und Gattungen umzusetzen.

The Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) art movement was founded in 1911, by the young painters Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, and remained active in Europe until 1914. Originally published in Munich, in 1912, and edited by Kandinsky and Marc, The Blaue Reiter Almanac presented the movement's synthesis of international culture to the European avant-garde at large. In both the selection of the essays and its innovative interplay of word and image, the Almanac remains one of the most critically important works on artistic theory and culture of the twentieth century. This edition, long unavailable in English and indispensable to any student of modernism, includes the original documents and musical notations, as well as essays by Kandinsky, Schonberg, Marc, and others, and an extensive critical introduction, placing the Blaue Reiter in context for contemporary readers.

Study of the Russian painter and 'inventor' of Abstract Art, Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and the European artists who formed the 'Blaue Reiter' group from 1911 onwards

“[A] dazzling vision of the way art transcends the everyday.” — Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW On a gray and crowded city sidewalk, a child discovers a book. That evening, the child begins to read and is immediately carried beyond the repetitive sameness of an urban skyscape into an untamed natural landscape. The child experiences a moment of true joy, and as if in response to that single blissful moment, people seem to come alive in all the other rooms of the apartment block. Thanks to the power of one book, an entire society is transformed. In creating this book, Geraldo Valério was inspired by the German Expressionist group known as Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), which formed in Munich in 1911 and included painters Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky. These artists sought to find the spiritual significance in art, with an emphasis on form and color. In turn, Valério has created a wordless book that speaks volumes about how art can transform us beyond the sometimes-dreary world of the everyday. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

The intellectual dialogue and friendship between two key modernist artists - the painter Wassily Kandinsky and the composer Arnold Schoenberg - forms the focal point of this fascinating survey, charting the early 20th century parallel movements towards abstraction in art and atonality in music.

KEYNOTE: This authoritative history of one of modern art's most important movements celebrates one hundred years since the inception of the Blue Rider artists' group. Although it only lasted three years--from 1911 to 1914--the collaborative force of German and Russian artists that made up "Der Blaue Reiter" had an amazing impact on the development of Expressionist art and, as a result, on modern art as a whole. This publication looks at the history of this group from the early artists' salons to its dissolution as a result of World War I. Richly illustrated with reproductions of iconic and lesser-known works as well as photographs of the artists, the book looks at the events and places considered the most formative to the movement, taking readers on the trail of the Blue Rider as they weathered intense criticism while inspiring dozens in their wake. The book considers many unresolved questions about the symbolism inherent in the group's paintings, and ends with an appreciation of the legacy these daring artists left behind. AUTHOR: Eckhard Hollmann is an art historian and the author of many books on art. ILLUSTRATIONS: 140 colour illustrations *

Works by Kandinsky, Marc, and Klee are avant-garde icons known the world over. The Lenbachhaus in Munich, Germany, possesses the world's finest collection of works by these artists.