GABRIELE MUNTER'S YOUTH

Gabriele Münter was born in Berlin in 1877. Because official art schools in Germany were exclusively for men, she decided to study art at the Malschule für Damen in 1897 in Düsseldorf. However the level disappointed Gabriele Münter and she traveled to the United States for a couple of years. In 1901 Münter returned to Germany and began art studies at the newly opened Phalanx School, a concept created by Wassily Kandinsky. Gabriele attented landscape courses, taught by Kandinsky himself. They even started a relationship, and got engaged.


GABRIELE MUNTER AS AN ARTIST

From 1904 through 1908, the two traveled throughout Europe but she was especially influenced by their trip to France where she encountered Impressionism. She translated this experience into large landscape paintings rich with atmospheric qualities. In 1909, she exhibited with the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (NKVM) group along with Jawlensky among many others. However, she and Kandinsky and Marc left the group and planned a counterexhibition when one of Kandinsky's paintings was rejected by the jury.

In 1911 Gabriele Münter became a member of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), an German Expressionist group co-founded by Wassily Kandinsky. at the beginning of World War I however Kandinsky decided to withdraw from a potential marriage and ended his relationship with Gabriele Münter. After their separation, Münter changed her painting style in the 1920's accordingly. When the Nazis came to power her work like that of her modernist contemporaries- was condemned as degenerate.


GABRIELE MUNTER'S DEATH

Gabriele Münter died 1962 in Murnau am Staffelsee.