The Blue Rider in the Lenbachhaus Munich

The Lenbachhaus, a museum located in Munich, is said to possess the world's finest collection of Blue Rider (Blaue Reiter) art. The first chapter of this exceptional catalog describes how this came about. Gabrielle Munter and Wassily Kandinsky were romantically and professionally associated from 1902-1914. At the outbreak of World War One Kandinsky, a Russian citizen, had to flee Munich. In doing so he left his possessions (including a large quantity of paintings) in Munter's safekeeping. After Kandinsky became involved with Nina, a younger woman who he later married, the vengeful Munter refused to return these items. There was a lengthy legal battle in which Kandinsky was the loser. In 1957 Munter donated her important collection of Blue Rider paintings and documents to the city of Munich.The Blue Rider movement was active from 1911-1914. According to the catalog, this group of artists utilised intense color in their expressive painting. They used a dense formal idiom that was moving towards abstraction. It was based on a unique spritual approach that that opened up new possibilities for expression. For Kaninsky, blue was the color of spirituality. The outbreak of war in 1914 resulted in the breakup of this pivotal movement; Kandinsky fled Germany and Franz Mark as well as August Macke perished on the battlefield.The bulk of this book comprises illustrations and descriptions of Blue Rider artworks from the Lenbachhaus collection. As expected, the most prominent artist is Kandinsky (39 works). Also illustrated are 18 paintings by Franz Marc, Munter (15), Macke (13), Jawlensky (13) and Paul Klee (13). There a total of 132 works featured; invariably they are of great quality and interest. What surprized me was the high standard of Munter's creations. Each artwork occupies a full page and there are useful annotations on a separate page.Finally, it is worth noting that this book, printed in Germany, is beautifully published on high grade paper and the quality of the color illustrations are exceptional. I give this publication my highest recommendation.

very nice art book. Only 4 stars because I heard the Lenbachhaus had a bigger collection including many drawings, prints, watercolors, etc. that didn't make it into this book? an older edition was described as including a cd-rom with many of those extra images--this edition did not includeanything else.

Just visited Lenbachhaus in May. I love LOVE Der Blau Reiter and the exhibition they have is incredible!This book perfectly captures the spirit and the history.If you like German Expressionism, this book is excellent.

Interesting articles about the Blue Rider and many beautiful colorful plates.

fabulous book,quick delivery

An exceptional book and a great memento of the expressionist section in the Lenbachhaus. The book is great, the only thing better if you get the chance is to go to the Lembachhaus - probably the greatest permanent collection of expressionist paintings (Blau Reiter at least) under one roof in the world!

Very nice book. The gift was very much appreciated by the recipient. Delivery was on time and as expected.

A large and heavy table top book. I emphasise this as we carried it as a gift. It is a beautiful book, quality pages of bilingual text about the museum collection. As a fan of the art that the museum holds my mother loved the book.... thankfully as it weighed a lot in our luggage.

Very good coverage of the artist in this group and informative about the era. Excellent reproductions and lots of good colour plates

lovely book, lovely illustration, very readable