Distributed for Hirmer Publishers
Women Artists of the Blue Rider
By introducing the women artists in the Blue Rider, this volume sheds light on some of the foremost pioneers of modern expressionist art.
The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) was a twentieth-century group of German Expressionist artists led by the likes of Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. In this volume, however, the women of this group take center stage. Their significant contribution to the avant-garde is celebrated alongside their courage in defying social conventions. The publication presents thirteen fascinating artist biographies well worth discovering. Gabriele Münter and Marianne von Werefkin have entered the canon of German modernism, but who were their fellow women artists? Through individual portraits and wide-ranging essays, this book recounts how the women of the Blue Rider group fought for artistic independence even in the most adverse of circumstances, creating international networks and pursuing their own artistic methods. More than one hundred fifty works show their revolutionary approach to art and its distinct way of engaging with the world.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Forewords
Melanie Vietmeier
Women Artist of the Blue Rider – Seen, Self-Confident, Strategic
Roman Zieglgänsberger
Stepping out of the Background – Gabriele Münter and Marianne von Werefkin
Isabel Wünsche
The International Network of the Blue Rider Women
Henrike Hans
Women and the Canon – Reception of the Women Artists of the Blue Rider
Artist: Marianne Werefkin
Mara Folini Ceccarelli. The Ethics of Subjectivity
Artist: Gabriele Münter
Isabelle Jansen. “… then tomorrow I will again jump into something new and unknown” – Gabriele Münter, A Free Woman Artist
Artist: Maria Franck-Marc
Melanie Vietmeier. “My yearning is for art”
Artist: Erma Bossi
Sandra Uhrig. Searching for Traces
Artist: Sonia Delaunay
Waleria Dorogova. Rivalry and Promise: Sonia Delaunay and the Strategic Role of the Blue Rider
Artist: Emmi Dresler
Bettina Löwen. Little Works Create the Big Picture
Artist: Elisabeth Epstein
Melanie Vietmeier. Networks and Friendships
Artist: Elisabeth Erdmann-Macke
Klara Drenker-Nagels. “My Alter Ego”
Artist: Natalia Goncharova
Henrike Hans. Breaking Boundaries
Atist: Else Lasker-Schüler
Nicholas Maniun. Cross-Dressing and Self-Mythologizing: The Gender Ambivalence, Jewish Identity, and Poetic Solidarity of Else Lasker-Schüler
Artist: Olga Meerson
Sandra Uhrig. Moscow, Munich, Paris
Artist: Carla Pohle
Melanie Vietmeier. A Graphic Artist Close to the New Artists’ Association Munich
Karin Althaus
“On the Artistic Education of Women” – The Training of Female Artists from around 1880 to 1920
Laura Mokrohs, Sylvia Schütz
“Live Freely!” – Precarious Conditions for Bohemian Women Writers in Munich
Beate Söntgen
Women on the Threshold – “The Women Artists of the Blue Rider” between Art, Craft, and Emancipation
Appendix
List of works
Bibliography
Image credits
Colophon