The Cosmos of “Der Blaue Reiter”: From Kandinsky to Campendonk

The Berlin Kupferstichkabinett is home to an impressive collection of modern art, including works by Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

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  Franz Marc, Ruhende Pferde, Detail, 1912, Farbholzschnitt, 17 x 22,9 cm (Druck)

• August Macke, Landschaft mit hellem Baum, Detail, 1914, Aquarell

• Heinrich Campendonk, Zwei weibliche Akte mit Tieren, Detail, 1913, Aquarell, Deckfarben

• Natalja Gonscharowa, Illustration zu „Die Eremiten“ von Alexei Krutschonych, 1912, Lithographie

• Wassily Kandinsky, Drei Reiter in Rot, Blau und Schwarz, 1911, Farbholzschnitt

• Else Lasker-Schüler, Die Hauptleute gehen für ihren Kaiser auf Raub aus, um 1915, Rohrfeder und farbige Kreiden

• Jacoba van Heemskerck, Komposition, 1920, Linolschnitt

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But what is less widely known is that the artists of Der Blaue Reiter also left behind a remarkable legacy of their own. As such, the Kupferstichkabinett is for the very first time dedicating a comprehensive exhibition to the art of Der Blaue Reiter, where it will showcase the museum’s holdings on the basis of 90 artworks organised according to specific themes. These will be complemeneted by a selection of works on loan from the Kunstbibliothek, the Museum Europäischer Kulturen and the Neue Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, as well from private Berlin collections.

Der Blaue Reiter

Der Blaue Reiter was first formed in Munich in 1911 by Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky as an editorial team. The group was able to boost its profile with the help of two exhibitions and an almanac of the same name published in 1912. The advent of the First World War in 1914 brought the majority of the endeavours of Der Blaue Reiter, which was not a permanent organisation, to an abrupt halt. Kandinsky was forced to leave Germany, and August Macke and Franz Marc were both killed in action – in 1914 and 1916 respectively.

Abstraction and Stylistic Diversity

At the heart of Kandinsky and Marc’s creative ideology was the concept of creating artworks that used the internal artistic experience as a means of visualising the spiritual. This led Kandinsky in particular to emancipate both colour and form from any concrete representational reference – thereby paving the way towards abstraction.

As August Macke’s oeuvre demonstrates, there were marked stylistic differences among members of the group, especially given that Der Blaue Reiter was also engaged with Europe’s prevailing painting and graphic art scenes and invited several of these artists to their exhibitions. In the quest to discover new forms of creative expression and what Kandinsky referred to as the “spiritual in art”, the artists developed a newfound appreciation for items of religious folk art including votive offerings and reverse glass paintings. Russian illustrated broadsheets from the 19th century even became exhibits in their own right.

Artworks on Paper

Alongside the medium of painting, drawing and printmaking also played a key role in the ouevre of Der Blaue Reiter – a fact that is evidenced by the group’s second exhibition Der Blaue Reiter: Schwarz-Weiß. André Derain, Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde were among the artists who participated in this exhibition who – unlike Gabriele Münter, Alfred Kubin and Paul Klee, for example – were not part of Der Blaue Reiter’s inner circle in Munich.

A Showjumping Course in Seven Chapters

The Cosmos of “Der Blaue Reiter” is organised into seven chapters devoted to Wassily Kandinsky’s graphic prints, August Macke’s painted works on paper and Franz Marc’s enthusiasm for flora and fauna. The exhibition also honours the poetic visual exchange between Franz Marc and poet Else Lasker-Schüler, as well as the broader topic of the female artists who were involved in the group.

One particular chapter of the exhibition explores the multifaceted pictorial world of the almanac of Der Blaue Reiter and the Schwarz-Weiß exhibition, and concludes with a look at the Berlin avant-garde gallery Der Sturm, which opened in 1912 with an exhibition by Der Blaue Reiter and Oskar Kokoschka. The woodcuts of Heinrich Campendonk were prominently featured in the magazine of the same name.

Artists Featured in the Exhibition

Hans Baldung, Heinrich Campendonk, Daniela Comani, Jutta Damme, André Derain, Robert Delaunay, August Gaul, Natalja Gontscharowa, Jacoba van Heemskerck, Bernd Koberling, Wilhelm Kuhnert, Alexej von Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, Else Lasker-Schüler, Michail Larionow, August Macke, Franz Marc, Wilhelm Morgner, Gabriele Münter, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Heinrich Rambold.

Exhibition Catalogue

The exhibition is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated publication (112 pages).

Curators

The exhibition is curated by Andreas Schalhorn, curator of modern art at the Kupferstichkabinett, with assistance from Claudia Lojak, museum research assistant in training at the Kupferstichkabinett.

A special exhibition of the Kupferstichkabinett – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Runtime: Sat, 01/03/2025 to Sun, 15/06/2025

Takes place here:

• Kulturforum - Kupferstichkabinett

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