Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) Quiz

The cover image for this quiz is the 1903 painting by Wassily Kandinsky from which the group of artists he and Franz Marc gathered to work on the project known as The Blue Rider took their name. Actually, it is possible that the painting was renamed retrospectively to link it with the group. Both of the founding members held strong associations with the colour blue, considering it to be a deeply spiritual colour.

Their initial project was an almanac, a collection of reproductions of artworks, poems, songs and articles on modern art. The group had a range of interests and styles, but all were interested in the movement away from traditional European approaches to art, and exploring areas such as primitivism, abstract art, children's and folk art, and the art of cultures around the world. This was followed by two exhibitions, before World War I caused the group to break up - some to serve in the army, some to spend the war outside of Germany.

The painting used here, 'Landscape with Factory Chimney', was painted in 1910, an oil on canvas painting that can currently be seen in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. It illustrates his thesis that colour is an autonomous part of the composition of a painting, not just used to convey an image which is the subject matter. In 1914 Kandinsky returned to his native Russia, but after the war ended he found that his artistic vision was not compatible with Soviet society, and he returned to Germany to take up a position at the Bauhaus from 1922 until it was closed by the Nazis in 1933. He then moved to France, where he spent the rest of his life.

Gabriele Münter, a German expressionist painter, was one of the founding members of the Blue Rider. Her family was sufficiently well off that she was afforded the luxury of traveling and practicing her art, gaining insights during her journey. As a woman, she was unable to attend the classic art schools, but in 1901 gained entry to the Phalanx School in Munich, an avant-garde institute that had been founded by Wassily Kandinsky. She developed a professional (and romantic) relationship with him that would last until he returned to Russia in 1914 without her. His 1917 marriage to Nina Andreevskaya spelled the complete end of their partnership.

Compared to other avant-garde artists of the time, her work was more representative, more focused on extracting the spiritual essence of landscapes, and less on modernism or futurism. Although it was not painted until 1923, 'Staffelsee in Autumn' illustrates this theme of her work. The first Blue Rider exhibition in 1911 included six of her paintings; the second, in 1912, had 14 of them.

Franz Marc, like Wassily Kandinsky, felt the colour blue was a powerful spiritual presence in paintings. Since he was also enamoured of horses, he is best known for his many paintings of blue horses, of which 'Blue Horse I' used here is just one example. This painting shows his exploration of primitivism; some were almost realist images (aside from the colour), while others, such as those in 1913's 'The Tower of Blue Horses' show how Marc was influenced by the development of cubism.

Marc was drafted to serve in the German army during World War I, and died at the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Even the work he had completed before this is not all preserved - the Nazis declared his work degenerate, and destroyed what they could. Fortunately, a significant amount was already in museums. He not only worked in oil paint, but also produced many woodcut and lithography prints, most of brightly coloured animals. His colours were chosen to represent abstract concepts, not to be realistic: blue for masculinity and spirituality, yellow for femininity and joy, red for anger and violence. The 1913 painting 'Fate of the Animals' has a number of abstract animals in red and dark shades, reflecting the state of the world as Marc saw it at the time.

Born Marianna Vladimirovna Veryovkina in 1860, Marianne von Werefkin was a prominent member of the German art scene following her move to Munich after her father's death left her with a secure pension from the Tsar, a pension that supported her until the Russian Revolution. Her early work was realistic (she was nicknamed "the Russian Rembrandt"), before she moved to impressionism in the 1890s. In 1892 she started a relationship with Alexej von Jawlensky that was to last until 1921 (when he married her housekeeper, who was also the mother of his child). In the early years of their relationship, she was a more accomplished artist than him, and she put her career on hold for a decade to support him both financially and artistically.

Werefkin and Jawlensky were members of the N.K.V.M. (Neue Künstlervereinigung München, or New Munich Artist's Association) and they were the primary ones who brought Franz Marc into the group in 1910. When Kandinsky, Münter and Marc broke off to form the Blue rider group in 1911, they were joined by Werefkin and Jawlensky. Werefkin, however, continued to show with N.K.V. M. and also with a group called the Bridge, with whom the work used for this question ('Ice Skaters 1', 1911) was exhibited.

As the information about Marianne von Werefkin indicated, Alexej von Jawlensky was a key member of N.K.V.M. and the Blue Rider (and later of the Blue Four). He had a keen interest in art while still serving in the military, and studied at the St Petersburg art academy. While there, he met Werefkin, and convinced her to further his career. After they moved to Munich, he met other Russian artists, including Wassily Kandinsky, and began to explore their methods.

Alexej von Jawlensky seems to have been quite the charmer. Not only did he convince Werefkin to put her career on hold to support his, and manage to stay in a relationship with her even after fathering a child by her housekeeper (whom he married in 1924, a mere 22 years after their son was born), he also persuaded Emmy Scheyer, an artist he met in Switzerland after being expelled from Germany during World War I, to put her time into promoting his work in the USA instead of creating her own. She was a significant factor in his ability to establish and promote the Blue Four in 1924.

The image used here, 'Self Portrait', was produced in 1905.

Albert Bloch was the only American associated with The Blue Rider, after moving to Germany in 1909 at the age of 27. 'Summer Night' was painted in 1913, while he was involved with The Blue Rider, and illustrates the group's interest in the spiritual aspects of life. The pale blues evoke a calm and serene state, supported by the way the figures and the background are all curved, and their postures suggest contemplation.

Following World War I, Bloch returned to the United States, where he spent the bulk of his remaining time as a Department Head at the University of Kansas.

The 1902 self portrait used here is not representative of August Macke's later work, which moved to the expressionist, conveying emotions rather than physical accuracy, and intentional distortions to force the viewer to reflect on the difference between what is shown and what they expect (and hence to examine their personal expectations). He was 23 when he met Marc and joined The Blue Rider; two years later he met Robert Delauney and discovered cubism; two years after that he traveled to Tunisia with Paul Klee and started to explore luminism.

Sadly for the art world, Mack was killed in battle only a month after the start of World War I. His final painting, the unfinished 'Farewell' (used here), is a sombre piece, with featureless people in dark colours looking as if there is nothing left to hope for.

David Davidovich Burliuk was a Ukrainian-born Russian poet who has been described as "the father of Russian Futurism." This movement formed in response to the 1909 publication of 'Manifesto of Futurism' by Filippo Marinetti. This argument that it was essential for society to look forward, and embrace youth, speed, and machinery (such as the automobile), was quickly translated from the original Italian into other languages, and inspired a number of European artists, including some from the Blue Rider. Russian Futurism pretty much dissolved after the Russian Revolution, as its proponents moved to join groups in other countries.

Although Burliuk is best known as a poet, he (along with others in his group) strove to unite all creative arts within their vision. He was one of the fourteen artists whose work was included in the first Blue Rider exhibition. The painting used here has the English title 'Advent of Spring', a very popular title and subject matter for artists, but one which he treats unconventionally, to demonstrate the concept of deconstructionism as a way of making the viewer consider the subject in an intellectual, rather than an emotional, manner. (Actually, if you look closely, you will see that the words painted in the lower right corner read 'Advent of Sping and Summe', but it is usually just called 'Advent of Spring'.)

The Russian avant-garde artist Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova expressed herself as a painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Like David Burliuk, she was one of the driving forces of Russian Futurism, as well as being an active member of the Blue Rider. The painting used here, 'Rayonist Lilies' (1913), shows clear Cubist influences, with its title referring to the movement she and her partner, Mikhail Larionov, were developing. Rayonism was Russia's first abstract art movement, lasting between 1912 and 1914. Its focus on the effect of light on surfaces, and their interplay with each other, was intended to place distance between the artist, the object being portrayed, and the audience.

Her work in costume and set design included designing for the Ballet Russe, working with Sergei Diaghilev and Bronislava Nijinska. She also worked with French fashion designer Paul Poiret, one of the major forces behind creating the concept of fashion as a form of fine art.

Lyonel Charles Adrian Feininger was born (to a German-American family) and raised in New York City, but moved to Berlin in 1888, at the age of 16, to study art. He started his artistic career as a cartoonist and comic strip illustrator in 1894, a pursuit he continued commercially for over thirty years. It was not until 1907 that he started to work in fine art. He was a member of multiple German expressionist groups, including the Blue Rider, before becoming one of the founding members of Walter Gropius' Bauhaus in 1919. He returned to the USA following the rise of the Nazi party, at which time his work was declared degenerate, and his life imperiled on those grounds.

The painting used here, 'Benz VI', was painted in 1914. The artist commented on it by stating, "There is no foreground or background, only a continuity of interlaying relationships."