CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/5/2017

Kandinsky, Marc, and Der Blaue Reiter

In January of 1912, painter Franz Marc wrote the following description of the Modern movement and almanac he would found with Wassily Kandinsky in the spring of that same year. "Today art is moving in a direction of which our fathers would never even have dreamed… We know that the basic ideas of what we feel and create today have existed before us, and we are emphasizing that in essence they are not new… The first volume herewith announced… includes the latest movements in French, German and Russian painting. It reveals subtle connections with Gothic and primitive art, with Africa and the vast Orient, with the highly expressive, spontaneous folk and children's art, and especially with the most recent musical movements in Europe and the new ideas for theater of our time." We cannot recommend highly enough the new survey from Hatje Cantz and the world-renowned Fondation Beyeler. Oversized, beautifully designed and printed and practically exploding with color and energy, it is the definitive book on Der Blaue Reiter. Featured image is "Blue-Black Fox" (1911) by Franz Marc.