For just a few years at the beginning of the twentieth century, Munich was the "hot spot" of Germany's artistic avant-garde. Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc's initiative as founding editors of the almanac Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was a stroke of luck for the arts. The journal and exhibition of the same name made international waves when they heralded the start of the modern era in Germany before the First World War. Since then, the names of the movement's key players Franz Marc, Gabriele Munter, Alexej von Jawlensky, August Macke et al., signal an essential chapter in the international history of art marked by the transition of painting into a vibrant, colorful and transcendental form of abstraction. This beautiful publication that dedicates itself to this topic will show a revolutionary re-valuation of the arts in an open Europe. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-4168-2)Exhibition: Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel 4.9.2016-22.1.2017

Text by: Oskar Batschmann, Andreas Beyer, Annegret Hoberg, Cathrin Klingsoehr-Leroy, Ulf Kuster, Marta Ruiz del Arbol