GABRIELE MÜNTER German, 1877-1962

Gabriele Münter was a German Expressionist painter best known for her poetic stylization of landscapes, self-portraits, and domestic interiors. Rendered in rich colors, simplified forms, and bold lines, Münter’s work Breakfast of the Birds (1934), conveys a quietly intense atmosphere of solitude and reflection. “After a short period of agony, I took a great leap forward from copying nature, in a more or less Impressionist style, to feeling the content of things,” she once reflected. Born on February 19, 1877 in Munich, Germany, she studied at the city’s progressive Phalanx School, under the famed Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinksy later became her lover, and often appeared in her paintings, including the hallmark work Boating (1910). In 1911, Münter, Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlenksy, and Franz Marc founded the Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter. Their group championed the connection between visual art and music, the work of Henri Rousseau, spiritually-based color theory, and Bavarian folk art. Despite the end of her relationship with Kandinsky, Münter’s work continued to evolve throughout the following decades. She died on May 19, 1962 in Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Lenbach House in Munich, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others.