Munich

Toward Abstraction

Kandinsky and his circle, 1906–1913

Munich drew Russian and German painters who joined in 1909 to form the New Artists' Association. In late 1911, after it turned down a large painting by Kandinsky, he and Franz Marc broke away and showed under the name of the almanac they were editing: the Blue Rider. Over these years color came loose from the things it described.

• Summers in Murnau, where four painters worked side by side
• Gabriele Münter, Kandinsky's partner, whose Murnau house hosted the circle and whose 1957 gift keeps much of its work in Munich
• Improvisations and compositions, and the step toward non-objective painting

Works in this part

• Riding Couple (Reitendes Paar)
• Murnau – View from the Window of the Griesbräu (Murnau – Blick aus dem Fenster des Griesbräu)
• Portrait of the Dancer Alexander Sakharoff (Bildnis des Tänzers Alexander Sacharoff)
• Self-Portrait I (Selbstbildnis I)
• Murnau Landscape (Murnauer Landschaft)
• Cover of the Blue Rider Almanac (Umschlag für den Almanach 'Der blaue Reiter')
• Improvisation 28 (Second Version)
• Improvisation No. 30 (Cannons)
• Composition VII

Image: Lenbachhaus, Munich · CC0 1.0