Der Blaue Reiter

Publisher R. Piper & Co., Munich, 1914 (1st ed. 1912)

Author Franz Marc (German, 1880-1916)

Date1914

DimensionsBook (rounded spine): H: 11 5/8 in. (296 mm); W: 9 in. (229 mm); Depth: 11/16 in. (17 mm).
Page: H: 11 3/8 in. (289 mm); W: 8 1/2 in. (216 mm).

MediumReproductions: 6 line block reproductions in colors of drawings and woodcuts (incl. covers); plus photolithographs of paintings, prints, drawings, and photographs . Text: photolithography. Paper: coated cream wove paper, cream laid paper, blue laid paper.

ClassificationBooks

Credit LineGift of Molly and Walter Bareiss

Object number

1984.1321

Not on View

Label TextVassily Kandinsky and other members of the artists’ collective called The Blue Rider wanted to break down the barriers and distinctions between the arts. Their journal featured the work of the Expressionists along with children’s, folk, and ethnographic art, as well as music, criticism, and drama. The Blue Rider described themselves as “‘savages’ fighting against an old established order. The battle seemed unequal, but spiritual matters are never decided by numbers, only by the power of ideas. New ideas can kill what seems indestructible.” The cover of the only issue of the journal to be published features an image of Saint George, the most popular saint in Kandinsky’s native Russia. Here, as the Blue Rider, he symbolizes the triumph of art over the dragon of a decadent and materialistic civilization.Published Referencescf. Garvey, Eleanor M., The Artist & the Book, 1860--1960, Boston, 1961, no. 139

cf. Johnson, Robert Flynn, Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870--2000: The Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, San Francisco, 2001, no. 20

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Modern Woodcuts, May 5 - July 24, 2000.