Gabrielle Münter and Vassily Kandinsky met in 1901. She was an art student and he became her teacher in 1902. Gabriele was going about the business of being an art student and taking a variety of classes. One class she elects to take in 1902 is a nude life drawing class that Kandinsky is teaching.

 

'There I had a new artistic experience, how -unlike other teachers - Kandinsky explained things in detail, clearly, and treated me as though I were a consciously striving person who can set herself problems and goals. That was something new for me and it impressed me.'6

-Gabriele Münter

 

'At first I experienced great difficulty with my brushwork- I mean with what the French call la touche de pinceau. So Kandinsky taught me how to achieve the effects that I wanted with a palette knife... My main difficulty was I could not paint fast enough. My pictures are all moments of life- I mean instantaneous visual experiences, generally noted very rapidly and spontaneously. When I begin to paint, it's like leaping suddenly into deep waters, and I never know beforehand whether I will be able to swim. Well, it was Kandinsky who taught me the technique of swimming. I mean that he has taught me to work fast enough, and with enough self- assurance, to be able to achieve this kind of rapid and spontaneous recording of moments of life'.6

-Gabriele Münter, Interview with Edouard Roditi in 1958

 

In June of 1902 Gabriele Münter elects to take a plien air landscape painting class also taught by Kandinsky. These are her first paintings done in this fashion, she would go on to paint many more. As her admiration of Kandinsky grows she finds herself spending quite a bit of time talking with him outside of class. Gabrielle Münter was an avid cyclist and she and Kandinsky would often go on bike tours. They would bring their paints and set to work. The bicycle became a way they could spend time together away from others. They grew increasingly intimate. This was an especially difficult situation because Kandinsky was already married to his Russian cousin named Anja Chimiakin. At one point Anja comes to visit and Kandinsky becomes "uncomfortable" at having both the woman he loves and his wife in the same place. He actually asks Gabriele to leave and return after Anja has left. She assents and takes a trip elsewhere for a time.6

In 1903 Kandinsky and Münter make their relationship 'officially unofficial'. They are said to have made vows to each other to be faithful. Kandinsky assures Münter that they will become engaged and soon married after his divorce to Anja. Prior to these promises Münter had held back from completely loosing her heart to Kandinsky.The social mores of the time could be quite brutal to a 'fallen woman'. Kandinsky makes clear that Anja has given up to any claim of him romantically. These assurances allow Münter to follow her heart and her art with Kandinsky's full support.

Münter and Kandinsky begin a relationship that would span 14 years. They would be partners in art.' In later years Münter would always stress that Kandinsky had always acknowledged, protected, and nurtured her talent.'4 There is much evidence to support that whatever difficulties they shouldered as lovers, they were always supportive of each others artistic direction.

Their love and friendship would be a major force in the organization and showing of The Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider) Group. This group will be dedicated to making the spiritual visible with art. This group will consist primarily of of August Macke, Franz Marc, Alexj von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Kandinsky, and Gabriele Münter. Der Blaue Reiter organized exhibitions in 1911 and 1912 that toured Germany. They also published an almanac featuring contemporary, primitive and folk art, along with children's paintings. In 1913 they exhibited in the first German Herbstsalon.

The group was disrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Franz Marc and August Macke were killed in combat. Vassily Kandinsky, Marianne von Werefkin and Alexj von Jawlensky were forced to move back to Russia because of their Russian citizenship. There were also differences in opinion within the group. As a result, Der Blaue Reiter was short-lived, lasting for only three years from 1911 to 1914. In 1923 Kandinsky, Feininger, Klee and Alexej von Jawlensky formed Die Blaue Vier (The Blue Four) and exhibited and lectured together in the United States of America in 1924.

In these 14 years Kandinsky and Münter will spend the first 5 years together almost everyday. This happy family life does not last. Kandinsky begins to travel extensively without Münter. His restlessness and desire to be without Münter for long months begins his incremental separation from Münter. Kandinsky does eventually divorce Anja (8 years later!). And Kandinsky does marry again in 1917 but not to Gabriele Münter. He makes a new home and life in Russia during his forced exile.

After Münter learns of this marriage from someone other than Kandinsky, she is understandably devastated and angry. She receives word from a lawyer asking for Kandinsky's property. She sends him many letters demanding that he recognize their marriage "of conscience" publicly and admit to breaking all the promises and vows he made to her. She receives this response...

 

"I do not want to deny my guilt. But it does not consist in the failure of our marriage to work out, that our life together was a constant torture for both of us. We are both guilty of that, insofar as a person can be guilty for possessing a particular type of character or another. At any rate, a marriage can only last when both parties consider it possible and desire it. My guilt consists of having broken my promise to marry you legally. And for that I am more than sorry... Because I -deliberately or not deliberately- have broken my word, therefore, it is my sincere attention at least to meet your wishes in material concerns as much as I am able... Hate on my part is out of the question. You brought much pain into my life, but are yourself unhappy enough that I could not have any hard feelings toward you. I wish you would not also hate me".

-Vassily Kandinsky, registered letter 22 July, 1922

 

After the above correspondence Kandinsky never sees Münter again and he will never go to their home in Murnau. He left behind an incredible amount of his early works in Germany. Gabriele Münter was able to successfully store and hide safely away many of these early Kandinsky paintings, her own works, and even some of the Blaue Reiter group during the Nazi degenerate art seizures. Her quick thinking and planning helped to save a very important chapter of the history of art.

Both of these artists felt a great deal of unhappiness during their relationship. This unhappiness did not stop either of them from making amazing works of art. Some might say their story lives up to the adage that one must suffer to make great art. Kandinsky goes on to become the father of abstract painting. In 1926 Münter meets Johannes Eichner and begins a relationship that is healthy and lasts until his death in 1958. Münter does not have as much commercial success as Kandinsky.But with support from Eichner she continued to make art and have many successful shows until her death in 1962. In examining her work at length her work does not simply hide in the shadows behind Kandinsky but can most certainly stand beside it.