Women Artists of the Blue Rider

„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.

Else Lasker-Schüler to Marianne von Werefkin 1913

This letter from Else Lasker-Schüler to Marianne von Werefkin, dated 1913, highlights two things that were important to the artists: First, the irregular, gender-fluid language deliberately subverts and challenges gender-specific role stereotypes — one of the themes that the artists explicitly brought to „Der Blaue Reiter“. Second, by using the multifaceted term “Blauer Reiterreiterin, ” Lasker-Schüler sought to highlight that Werefkin, as a “pioneer, ” had provided decisive impetus for the renewal of art at the beginning of the 20th century. Despite these women’s awareness that they had been an essential part of the “Blue Rider, ” the female artists were almost completely pushed out of the spotlight due to a male-centered art historical narrative.

After World War II, the first retrospective on the “Blue Rider, ” held in 1949 at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, cemented the group’s future male-dominated canon — a situation that persisted well into the 21st century. For here, all the artists of the circle—Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Paul Klee, Alexej von Jawlensky, and many others — were celebrated on a grand scale, while of the female artists, only Erma Bossi, Gabriele Münter, and Marianne von Werefkin remained and were featured to a much lesser extent. Many of the female artists who were previously represented have been the subject of monographic solo exhibitions of varying scope in recent decades, but whenever “Der Blaue Reiter” as a whole was the focus of an exhibition, their art was largely excluded once again, thereby marginalizing their contributions.

The exhibition “Women Artists of the Blue Rider” brings together the eight female artists who were represented in one of the three exhibitions of the “New Artists’ Association of Munich” (1909/1910/1911) or in one of the two exhibitions of the “Blue Rider” (1911/1912): The “inner circle” included Maria Franck-Marc, Gabriele Münter, and Marianne von Werefkin. In addition, the artists Erma Bossi, Emmi Dresler, Elisabeth Epstein, Natalya Goncharova, and Carla Pohle also exhibited works in these exhibitions. Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke, Else Lasker-Schüler, Sonia Delaunay-Terk, and Olga Meerson were very close to the “Blue Rider” circle and were therefore included.

It is not until the focus narrows to these twelve female artists that it becomes clear how much, in hindsight, was unknowingly distorted or simply omitted and therefore remained unexamined. It was not only the men who maintained artistic connections with France or Russia, but also, to a significant extent, the female artists. Furthermore, they enriched the “Blue Rider” with themes that are highly relevant today: For their paintings sometimes hint at strategies for how underrepresented women can hold their own in a competitive environment. They also offer an ironic perspective on “women’s art”—which was generally devalued—and, through their socially and culturally critical works, open our eyes to constructed role models, questions of identity, and gender roles—aspects that held less interest for the men in the group. Not least because of their art—which took women’s perspectives into account—“Der Blaue Reiter” was a unique phenomenon among the countless artistic circles of its time. With the “Women Artists of the Blue Rider, ” the “Blue Rider” gained in plurality, polyphony, and diversity.

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.