Strange to think that something so blue could have such a long history. The Blauer Turm Sculpture stands here today, a testament to art and history. Let’s explore its story.
The Blauer Turm Sculpture is related to the “Blauer und Gelber Turm”. It is an artistic ventilation tower. It serves underground building parts. The artist is Heinz Pfahler. It is made of glass.
Once, there was a tower called the “Blauententurm”. It was also known as Püttrich- or Ruffiniturm. This tower was torn down in 1808. It was the original old Sendlingertor. It stood at Sendlingerstraße 1, between Fürstenfelderstraße and Färbergraben.
The Blauer Reiter was an artist group in Munich at the turn of the century. Its members were avant-garde. Their art broke conventions. Not everyone applauded them.
The Blauer Reiter sought a new artistic path. They moved away from lifelike depictions. They focused on inner experience. These painters felt connected to art’s new dawn. They exhibited abstract images in Munich and Europe.
Key figures included August Macke and Gabriele Münter. Franz Marc and Marianne von Werefkin were also involved. Alexei Jawlensky, Alfred Kubin, Paul Klee, Arnold Schönberg, Heinrich Campendonk, and Robert Delaunay were members too. The Lenbachhaus in Munich has the world’s largest Blauer Reiter collection.
Munich attracted artists worldwide. It became an art Mecca at the turn of the century. The Blauer Reiter members met in Schwabing and Maxvorstadt. They gathered at painting schools, studios, and salons. Jawlensky and Werefkin met there. Kandinsky and Münter also connected. Kandinsky and Marc became friends. Macke and Klee joined the group later.
They discovered the landscape around Murnau and the Bavarian Alpine foothills. Kandinsky and Münter moved to Murnau. Münter lived there until her death in 1962. Her villa is open to visitors today.
The rural area inspired the painters. They developed their own expression forms. The name Blauer Reiter came about during a stay in the Oberland region. Kandinsky wrote: “We invented the Blaue Reiter while sat at the coffee table in the garden gazebo in Sindelsdorf. Both of us loved blue. For Franz Marc, it was the horses. For me, the riders. And that is how the name came to be.”
The Blue Rider group had two exhibitions in Munich in 1911 and 1912. These were not popular successes. Visitors barely understood Kandinsky’s improvisation. They also struggled with Marc’s colorful animal figures. The group disbanded with World War One’s outbreak. Macke and Mark died in action. Kandinsky had to return to Russia.
Gabriele Münter saved many images from this period. These are testimonies to Classical Modernism. In 1957, she donated her pictures and her artist friends’ works to the Städtische Galerie in Lenbachhaus. This totaled over 1,000 works. These included Kandinsky paintings she saved from destruction during World War Two. In 1965, she donated paintings by Macke and Marc.
Besides the Lenbachhaus, you can find works by the Blauer Reiter group near Munich. Visit the Schlossmuseum Murnau. Or, visit the Franz Marc Museum in Kochel am See. The Museum Penzberg also displays their art.
Standing before the Blauer Turm Sculpture, we see a modern echo of artistic innovation. It reminds us of the Blauer Reiter’s legacy. It links the past to the present.