German
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Basic data
Gabriele Münter was a German painter, photographer and important member of the expressionist artists' group “Der Blaue Reiter”. She played a central role in the development of modern art in Germany.
- Name: Gabriele Münter
- Date of birth: February 19, 1877
- Place of birth: Berlin, Germany
- Date of death: May 19, 1962
- Place of death: Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany
- Nationality: German
- Artistic style: Expressionism
- Known works: “Boote auf dem Staffelsee”, “Der blaue Berg”, “Murnauer Landschaft”
- Techniques: Painting, printmaking, photography
- Influences: Wassily Kandinsky, Munich Secession, folk art
- Similar artists: Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Otto Mueller, Henri Matisse, Max Beckmann
- Exhibitions: Exhibitions in Germany and internationally, including at the Lenbachhaus in Munich
- Special features: Pioneer of Expressionism, close connection to Wassily Kandinsky and the “Blue Rider”
Gabriele Münter had a decisive influence on modern art and left behind an extensive oeuvre that is still highly valued today.
Biography
Childhood & youth
Gabriele Münter was born in Berlin on February 19, 1877. She showed a strong artistic talent from an early age and her family supported this inclination. After the early death of her parents in 1897, Münter began to pursue her desire to become an artist. At this time, however, women in Germany were largely excluded from formal art education, which is why Münter had to find alternative ways to further her artistic development.
In 1898, she moved to Munich, where she studied at the “Damenakademie des Münchner Künstlerinnenvereins”, one of the few institutions offering art lessons to women. However, the academy did not meet her expectations and she looked for new opportunities to develop her art. An important phase of her training began in 1902 when she joined the Phalanx School, which was run by Wassily Kandinsky. This encounter with Kandinsky would have a decisive influence on her artistic and private life.
Munich, Kandinsky and the path to modernism
Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky quickly developed a close relationship, both professionally and privately. Kandinsky became not only her teacher, but also her life partner. They traveled through Europe together, and Münter immersed herself in the new, avant-garde trends in art that were emerging at the time. Her trips to France, especially Paris, brought her into contact with the ideas of Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and the emerging abstract art.
During these years, Münter developed her own style, which clearly departed from academic realism. She experimented with bold colors, simplified forms and an expressive style. The rural scenes and landscapes she paints often show strong color contrasts and a clear, reduced pictorial language. Münter and Kandinsky were co-founders of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (NKVM) and later of the influential group Der Blaue Reiter, a key player in the early German avant-garde.
Der Blaue Reiter and artistic maturity
In 1911, Der Blaue Reiter was founded, a group of artists who opposed the academic style of art and sought a new, spiritual form of expression. In addition to Kandinsky and Münter, artists such as Franz Marc, August Macke and Paul Klee were among the leading members of the group. Münter's painting during this period was strongly inspired by nature, but also by a spiritual understanding of color as a means of expression. In works such as Mountain Landscape with Church (1910) and Murnau with Church (1911), she uses strong colors and clear forms to create a subjective, emotional interpretation of the landscape.
The house in Murnau am Staffelsee, which she bought together with Kandinsky in 1909, became an important place for Münter's work. Here Münter continued to develop her unmistakable style and painted numerous landscapes and portraits. Murnau became a central location for the creation of the works of the Blue Rider artists and a source of inspiration for Münter.
The First World War and personal crises
Münter's life changed radically with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Kandinsky, as a Russian citizen, had to leave Germany and returned to Russia. Although the two originally planned to get back together after the war, they went their separate ways. This separation marked the end of an important phase in Münter's life and her artistic partnership with Kandinsky. She fell into a deep personal crisis, which also had a strong impact on her artistic production.
In the years that followed, Münter lived largely in seclusion in her house in Murnau. She only painted sporadically and suffered from the isolation and uncertainty of the post-war years. Nevertheless, she remained true to her artistic vision and stuck to the ideas she had developed together with Kandinsky and the other artists of the Blauer Reiter.
Late life and legacy
Gabriele Münter spent the last years of her life in Murnau and remained artistically active into old age.She died on May 19, 1962 at the age of 85. Her artistic legacy is shaped not only by her own works, but also by her decisive role in preserving and passing on the works of the Blue Rider. Münter is considered one of the most important German artists of modernism.
Her painting, which is often seen as the female antithesis to the expressive masculinity of the Blue Rider artists, has secured a firm place in art history thanks to her sensitivity to color, form and expressiveness.The house in Murnau, where she created many of her important works, is now a museum and an important testimony to the artistic movement that she co-founded.
Exhibitions
- 2024 Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider - Tate Modern, London.
- 2024 Gabriele Münter, Eudora Welty. Au début, la photographie - Pavillon Populaire, Montpellier
- 2022 Kabinettausstellung: Schneefarben. Winterbilder von Gabriele Münter - Schlossmuseum Murnau, Murnau.
- 2022 Gabriele Münter. Pionierin der Moderne - Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern.
- 2023 Gabriele Münter. Menschenbilder - Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg.
Awards
- 1956 Advancement Award for Fine Arts of the City of Munich
- 1957 Golden Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Films
- Münter & Kandinsky, film, Marcus O. Rosenmüller, 125 Min, Germany 2024
- Bayern & der Blaue Reiter, Antje Harries, documentary, 45 Min, Germany 2013.
Literature
- Gabriele Münter. Eine Künstlerin aus dem Kreis des ‚Blauen Reiter‘, Sabine Windecker, Berlin 1991.
- Ich Weltkind: Gabriele Münter; die Biographie, Gudrun Schury, Berlin 2012.
- Gabriele Münter. Eine Biographie, Boris von Brauchitsch, Berlin 2017.
Collections
Germany
- Munich - Lenbachhaus
- Berlin - Nationalgalerie
USA
- New York - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Los Angeles - LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Schwitzerland
- Zürich - Kunsthaus Zürich
France
- Paris - Musée d'Orsay
