Abstract
This chapter examines the influence of national and transnational biographies on our understanding of Gabriele Münter (1877–1962) and Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), founders of Der Blaue Reiter and key innovators of the twentieth-century modern and abstract art movements. Focusing on the first biography of Münter by Johannes Eichner, it explores how national biographers’ preconceptions of the roles of men and women led to an ‘othering’ of the artists, reducing Münter’s intellectual agency and overemphasising the spiritual Russian elements of Kandinsky’s art. The chapter shows that feminist art criticism and an openness to new transnational perspectives in biography are now addressing these misconceptions. An examination of diverse cultural influences from Africa, America and Europe enable us to reinterpret their art and better comprehend their aims.
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Bode, S. (2020). Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky: A Reassessment of Transnational Identities and Abstraction Through Biography. In: Rensen, M., Wiley, C. (eds) Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Palgrave Studies in Life Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-45200-1_3
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