German Expressionism: Der Blaue Reiter and its Legacies

Description

This book presents new research on the histories and legacies of the German Expressionist group Blaue Reiter, the founding force behind modernist abstraction. For the first time Blaue Reiter is subjected to a variety of novel inter-disciplinary perspectives, ranging from a philosophical enquiry into its language and visual perception to analyses of its gender dynamics, its reception at different historical junctures throughout the twentieth century and its legacies for post-colonial aesthetic practices. The volume offers a new perspective on familiar aspects of Expressionism and abstraction, taking seriously the inheritance of modernism for the twenty-first century in ways that will help to recalibrate the field of Expressionist studies for future scholarship. Blaue Reiter still matters, the contributors argue, because the legacies of abstraction are still being debated by artists, writers, philosophers and cultural theorists today. -- .

Dorothy Price is Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art and Critical Race Art History at The Courtauld -- .

'This book is not intended as an introduction to the art and ideas of Der Blaue Reiter, nor does it offer a comprehensive history of the group. Instead, these essays provide new, exciting readings of a series of topics that are loosely linked yet independent of each other. Although it took nine years for them to appear in print, they have lost nothing in the delay, and for those interested in an in-depth analysis of Der Blaue Reiter and its legacies, the book is well worth the wait.' Burlington Magazine 'German expressionism is enjoying a resurgence of interest. Most of the recent scholarship on the art of German expressionism focuses on the artists of Die Brucke (The Bridge), a group founded in 1905 by four Dresden architects, which lasted about a decade. In the popular imagination, the angular, painterly, figurative style of Die Brucke artists, who were interested in combining the modern and the primitive, represents the essential qualities of expressionism. Until now, the artist groups that arose in Munich during the decade before WW I have received little attention. Among those groups was Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), usually considered another development of pre-WW I German expressionism. In contrast to the Die Brucke artists, the artists of Der Blaue Reiter were less cohesive in style and intent. Scholars of German expressionism have always taken pains to argue that Der Blaue Reiter really belonged to the earlier movement. Three of the eight essays in this collection try to establish Der Blaue Reiter as an equal contributor, with a standing of its own, to the expressionist movement. The other five essays explore tangential aspects of individual artists' careers and specific cases of early critical appreciation.' --W. S. Bradley, emeritus, Colorado State University Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. -- .