Women of the Blue Rider

23 Oct 26 — 21 Feb 27

Marianne von Werefkin, *The Dancer Alexander Sacharoff*, 1909. Municipal Museum of Modern Art, Ascona. Photo: Municipal Museum of Modern Art, Ascona

“Dear Princess, noble wild boy, sweet painter, when may I come — I dream of the sweetness of your paintings. (The Prince of Thebes) Else Lasker-Schüler (Friend of the Blue Rider rider.)”

Else Lasker-Schüler to Marianne von Werefkin 1913

„Der Blaue Reiter“ (The Blue Rider) was a collective of artists who made transformative contributions to painting, graphic art, literature, and music. With its two exhibitions organized in 1911 and 1912 and the almanac published in 1912, it stands for subjectivity in art, the liberation of color from the object, and the idea of equality between artistic forms of expression from different eras, genres, and regions. It is thus part of the international avant-garde movements before the First World War.

Gabriele Münter, Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin, 1909. Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau Munich, Gabriele Münter Foundation 1957 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026
Gabriele Münter, Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin, 1909. Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau Munich, Gabriele Münter Foundation 1957 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026
Erma Bossi, Self-Portrait (acquired in 1970 as a portrait of Marianne von Werefkin), around 1910. Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau Munich, on permanent loan from the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich
Erma Bossi, Self-Portrait (acquired in 1970 as a portrait of Marianne von Werefkin), around 1910. Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau Munich, on permanent loan from the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich

To this day, it remains almost completely unexplored what a significant role the individual female artists associated with Der Blaue Reiter played in the development of modernism, what strategies and networks they devised in order to lead a life as independent artists despite the prevailing social norms of the time, which were completely hostile to them, And who were all these artists, some of whom have been completely forgotten and whose lives can hardly be reconstructed? These are the themes of the exhibition Die Blauen Reiterinnen (Women of the Blue Rider).
And here they are:

Erma Bossi — Sonia Delaunay-Terk — Emmi Dresler — Elisabeth Epstein — Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke — Natalia Gontscharowa — Else Lasker-Schüler — Maria Franck-Marc — Olga Meerson — Gabriele Münter — Carla Pohle — Marianne von Werefkin

An exhibition in cooperation with the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen and the Städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhaus and Kunstbau Munich and the Fondazione Marianne Werefkin in Ascona, Switzerland.

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1 Marianne von Werefkin, The Dancer Alexander Zakharov, 1909. Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Ascona. Photo: Museo Comunale d’Arte Moderna, Ascona
2 Maria Franck-Marc, Peonies, 1909. Museum Wiesbaden. Photo: Museum Wiesbaden / Bernd Fickert
3 Natalia Goncharova, The Bathers, ca. 1910, Museum Wiesbaden, acquired with the support of the Hessian Cultural Foundation, the Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts in Wiesbaden, and the City of Wiesbaden
4 Gabriele Münter, Kandinsky, and Erma Bossi at the Table, 1912, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich, Gabriele Münter Foundation 1957 © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2026

Marianne von Werefkin, Autumn — School 1907, Marianne Werefkin Foundation, Municipal Museum of Modern Art, Ascona

Would you like to lead your group through the exhibitions yourself?

Even if you are leading your own group, a visit is only possible with a prior reservation. Otherwise, admission cannot be guaranteed.

Due to very high demand, we can only offer self-guided adult groups a one-hour time slot from Tuesday through Friday between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM.

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