Kandinsky and Blue Rider reach Moscow

The State Pushkin Museum is opening a long-awaited display of the works by Vassily Kandinsky and the Blue Rider movement. This display brought to Moscow from Munich will feature the most important European avant-garde art from the 1910s.

The major display from Germany`s Lenbachhaus Gallery will present 62 works including 30 canvases by Vassily Kandinsky. The rest of the exhibits will feature creations by the major participants of the Blue Rider movement, including Franz Stuck, Paul Klee, August Macke, Aleksey Yavlenskiy and others.

All these works are being brought from Germany to Moscow for the first time ever.

Kandinsky`s own fate was tightly connected with Germany. He moved there at the age of 30, when he realized he wanted to become an artist. The Blue Rider group was founded by Vassily Kandinsky in Munich in 1911, together with like-minded artists such as August Macke and Franz Marc. Its history was brief, having lasted just four years with the World War I putting an end to the group.

However its members were productive enough to produce an almanac of their art and hold two exhibitions. Works of that period are now evaluated as an independent phenomenon in the history of the European avant-garde art of the 20th century.

World War I threw Kandinsky back to Russia, however in 1921 he returned to Germany, having joined the Bauhaus school as a tutor. In 1933, Kandinsky moved to France, where he died 11 years later.

The not-to-be-missed displayed will be on through January 15, 2012.

sections: Culture