So, it occurs to me that I post these biographies of artists and show their work, all while talking about artistic movements some of you may have never heard of. Since these movements were so important to the artists' lives and art, I've decided to add a feature to "For Art's Sake". Each week or so (when I post a new artist), I'll also post about movements they started, defied, or were a part of. This is great cocktail party fodder, by the way. 
Our AotW this week is Wassily Kandinsky who, along with Franz Marc, founded Der Blaue Reiter in 1911. Here's a little info about them:
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was a German movement lasting from 1911 to 1914, fundamental to Expressionism, along with Die Brücke (The Bridge) which was founded the previous decade in 1905. Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Lyonel Feininger, Albert Bloch and others founded the group in response to the rejection of Kandinsky's painting Last Judgment from an exhibition. Der Blaue Reiter lacked a central artistic manifesto, but was centred around Kandinsky and Marc. Artists Gabriele Münter and Paul Klee were also involved.
The Members of Der Blau Reiter
The name of the movement comes from a painting by Kandinsky created in 1903 (see illustration). It is also claimed that the name could have derived from Marc's enthusiasm for horses and Kandinsky's love of the color blue. For Kandinsky, blue is the color of spirituality: the darker the blue, the more it awakens human desire for the eternal (see his 1911 book On the Spiritual in Art).
Within the group, artistic approaches and aims varied from artist to artist; however, the artists shared a common desire to express spiritual truths through their art. They believed in the promotion of modern art; the connection between visual art and music; the spiritual and symbolic associations of color; and a spontaneous, intuitive approach to painting. Members were interested in European medieval art and primitivism, as well as the contemporary, non-figurative art scene in France. As a result of their encounters with cubist, fauvist and Rayonist ideas, they moved towards abstraction.
Der Blaue Reiter organized exhibitions in 1911 and 1912 that toured Germany. They also published an almanac featuring contemporary, primitive and folk art, along with children's paintings. In 1913 they exhibited in the first German Herbstsalon.
Cover of the Blue Rider catalog
The group was disrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Franz Marc and August Macke were killed in combat. Wassily Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin and Alexej von Jawlensky were forced to move back to Russia because of their Russian citizenship. There were also differences in opinion within the group. As a result, Der Blaue Reiter was short-lived, lasting for only three years from 1911 to 1914. In 1923 Kandinsky, Feininger, Klee and Alexej von Jawlensky formed Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four) and exhibited and lectured together in the United States of America in 1924.
