The Lenbachhaus has redesigned its Blue Rider collection. The curatorial team has worked out new connections between the works and their creators. Centerpieces of the collection are now presented centrally and immediately attract attention, while newly restored works are shown to the public for the first time. The new color and spatial concept allows visitors to immerse themselves in the intense world of this avant-garde movement and opens up fascinating insights into the history and visions of the artists.
Under the title “Beyond the world. Der Blaue Reiter”, the Lenbachhaus is presenting its extensive collection of the artists’ group with a fresh concept that places a stronger focus on the movement’s central works and gives visitors new access to this formative avant-garde. Key pieces such as “Blue Horse I” by Franz Marc are presented more prominently and allow visitors to experience Marc’s symbolic color theory and the emotional power of his work first-hand. This is complemented by freshly restored new acquisitions made possible by the Freundeskreis Lenbachhaus e. V.: the abstract works “Ornamental Composition XIII” and “Ornamental Composition XV” by Wilhelm Morgner expand the understanding of the Blue Rider’s language of color and form and fit seamlessly into the narrative line of the exhibition. The new color concept picks up on the intense, symbolic color worlds of the movement, allowing visitors to truly immerse themselves in the visions of the avant-garde. In addition, the city views by Emmy Klinker and Albert Bloch, which include social criticism, will also be presented in the exhibition for the first time. These works impressively illustrate the connection between artistic innovation and social responsibility. At the same time, the provenance research team has gained new insights into the works in the collection, helping to clarify their provenance and historical classification.
Focus on female artists
The exhibition at the Lenbachhaus also deliberately focuses on the central contributions of female artists who were unusually visible for their time. These include Gabriele Münter with her expressive paintings, Elisabeth Epstein with her haunting self-portraits, the dramatic works of the cosmopolitan Marianne von Werefkin and the subtle still lifes and utopian children’s worlds of Maria Franck-Marc.
Together with the works of their male colleagues, these works show that Der Blaue Reiter was more than just a style: it was a transnational network of creative minds that used cultural differences as a resource and developed a new visual language for a changing world in an exchange between Germany, France, the Russian Empire and the USA. Many of the participants presented unconventional lifestyles, questioned gender roles and sought new forms of expression beyond bourgeois norms.
Over 150 works for new insights
With over 150 works, the exhibition opens up new perspectives on one of the most important movements of the European avant-garde. In addition to classics by Franz Marc, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, it shows large-format abstract compositions, socially critical works and performative transgressions for the first time. The exhibition illustrates how topical the questions of emancipation, aesthetic practice and cross-genre innovation still are today. Art was understood by the artists of Der Blaue Reiter as a message, not just as a play with form and color – as Else Lasker-Schüler poetically put it in 1911: “Beyond the world.” The redesign of the collection also forms an important component of the preparations for the anniversary “100 Years of the Lenbachhaus 1929-2029” and illustrates how the museum combines classic collection presentation with innovative exhibition ideas in order to bring the groundbreaking significance of the Blue Rider for art history to life.
