Gabriele Münter

 

Sunset over Staffelsee 1908-1911

 Gabriele Münter, 1877-1962 was a German expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde in the early 20th century.

She was born in Berlin, of parents who supported her desires to become an artist. She spent some years in the US and, in 1901, she attended classes at Women Artists's Association, in Munich. She was introduced to Post-Impressionism ; her vivid colors and bold outlines were somewhat derived from Gauguin and the Fauves whom she admired but she was inspired by Bavarian folk art as well.

Münter became professionally and also sentimentally involved with the Russian painter Vassily Kandinsky, in those years working in Munich. In 1909, she bought a house in Murnau am Staffelsee, where she received many members of the artistic avant-garde: Marianne von Werefkin, Alexey von Jawlensky and Adolf Erbslöh. Later, Franz Marc, August Macke and composer Arnold Schönberg also stayed in her house. During First World War, Kandinsky – a Russian subject – is forced to leave Germany, whereas Münter spends several years in Scandinavia.

During the Nazi régime she’s (of course) labeled as "degenerate artist" and goes into a inner exile. After the war she is recognized as a major German artist.

Münter is one of the most important representatives of the Munich avant-garde from the beginning of the XX century, being a founding member of the artistic movement Der blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), one of the currents of German Expressionism.

Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin 1909

In 2018, the Danish Louisiana Museum had a Gabriele Münter exhibition.

"Though perhaps not widely known yet, the German painter Gabriele Münter should be acknowledged for her striking contribution to the art of the twentieth century. Taking a present-day look at Münter, this exhibition is the first in several decades to unfold the many aspects of her long and multi-facetted artistic career."

1908

 

 

 

Hotel Fürstenhof on Potsdamer Platz

 Hotel Fürstenhof was a hotel facing both Leipziger Platz and Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany. It was designed by architects Richard Bielenberg and Josef Moser and opened in 1907. It had 300 rooms. On 22 November 1943 the hotel was destroyed during a raid on Berlin.

The architecture had elements of Art Nouveau, the onset of Modernism and the neo-baroque. The interior of the building was elaborately decorated, including a fountain by Ludwig Mayer and carvings by Richard Kuhn.

 

Emmy Klinker

 

 

1918

Emmy Klinker (1891-1969) was a German expressionist painter. In 1919 she exposed, together with Albert Bloch, Kurt Schwitters, and others in the famous Berlin gallery "Der Sturm". For a long time she was nearly forgotten, but 2012, Wuppertal’s Von der Heydt-Museum, showed some of her paintings in an exhibition consecrated to "Der Sturm".

Born in Eupen (today that city belongs to Belgium), she moved to Berlin in 1911. In 1914 she went on a study trip to Paris, after she had met Alexei von Jawlensky. She was a close friend of Gabriele Münter, another expressionist artist. 

In 1938 one of her paintings was shown in an exhibition of "degenerate art" and she was close to being forbidden to paint by the Nazi authorities. In 1944-1945 she spent five months in the concentration camp of Dachau for having hidden Jewish friends.

In 1956 she was awarded the Prize of the City of Munich. Emmy Klinker died 1969 in a car accident.

 

Self portrait 1928

1925

1921

 

Frans Masereel, not a Berliner

1926

Looking at this picture, one would think that its author, Frans Masereel (1889-1972), was born in Berlin, or at least in Dresden. But not, he was a Belgian painter and graphic artist who worked mainly in France. In fact, the urban landscape depicted in this image is not Berlin, as I first assumed, but Paris, a city which also boasts an elevated train.

Still, because of his Weimar-style and also because he did visit Berlin where he befriended Georg Grosz, one of the Weimar-era artists by excellence, I welcome him to this blog.