Der Blaue Reiter Biography

Der Blaue Reiter (‘The Blue Rider’) was an Expressionist artistic circle centred on Munich in 1911–14. Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc organised exhibitions and edited the influential Der Blaue Reiter Almanac (1912), bringing together contemporary painting, folk art, music and writing.

The artists did not share a single style or have a rigid membership structure. They explored expressive colour, spirituality, abstraction and new ways of representing experience. The group’s activity was disrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. The lists below distinguish the principal circle from other artists who exhibited with, contributed to or were closely connected with the project.

Artists and participants

Principal circle

• Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944)
• Franz Marc (1880–1916)
• Gabriele Münter (1877–1962)
• August Macke (1887–1914)
• Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941)
• Marianne von Werefkin (1860–1938)
• Paul Klee (1879–1940)
• Heinrich Campendonk (1889–1957)
• Albert Bloch (1882–1961)

Other participating or closely associated artists

• Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
• David Burliuk (1882–1967)
• Vladimir Burliuk (1886–1917)
• Natalia Goncharova (1881–1962)
• Alfred Kubin (1877–1959)
• Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
• Robert Delaunay (1885–1941)
• Henri Le Fauconnier (1881–1946)
• Maria Franck-Marc (1876–1955)
• Elisabeth Epstein (1879–1956)
• Adolf Erbslöh (1881–1947)