Der Blaue Reiter

Penguin books announced the name of its newest publishing imprint today, Blue Rider Press. The imprint's publisher, David Rosenthal, explained the significance of the name: “The Blue Rider name historically represents individuality and quality in the arts. And that same intent will be reflected in the eclectic fiction and nonfiction books Blue Rider Press will publish.” Of course, the real story is much more interesting than that.

Der Blaue Reiter was an art movement founded in Germany in 1911, surrounding a group of artists including Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. As the Wikipedia article on the group describes them:

They believed in the promotion of modern art; the connection between visual art and music; the spiritual and symbolic associations of colour; and a spontaneous, intuitive approach to painting. 

Though the movement lasted only until the outbreak of the war in 1914, it left a lasting impression, due in no small part to its 1912 publication of The Blue Rider Almanac. The Almanac was republished in English a few years ago by MFA Publications and worth a read.

Publisher's description: "Originally published in Munich in 1912 and edited by Kandinsky and Marc, The Blaue Reiter Almanac presented the movement’s synthesis of international culture to the European avant-garde at large. In both the selection of essays and its innovative interplay of word and image, The Blaue Reiter Almanac remains one of our most critically important works of literature on the art theory and culture of the 20th century. This edition, long unavailable in English and indispensable to any student of modernism, simulates the original German format, and includes documents, and musical notations, as well as seminal essays by Kandinsky, Schoenberg, Marc, and others. Nearly 150 illustrations, from ancient and contemporary sources, capture the wide-ranging interests and passions that inspired Kandinsky's and Marc's programmatic attempt to make modernism accessible across national and chronological boundaries. Also included is Klaus Lankheit's extensive critical introduction, which places the Blaue Reiter in context for contemporary readers."

This season's big artist biography

In case you've somehow missed it, this season's "big artist biography"* is now out, Modigliani: A Life, by Meryle Secrest. Generally, and perhaps unsurprisingly given Secrest's rich body of work (including her 1979 book on collector and connoisseur Bernard Berenson, which is terrific) this new work is being generally well received, and for Modigliani or artist biography fans, seems well worth a read.

There are plenty of reviews to read as well, but Christopher Benfey in Slate captures the main critical points of many of them: "On the whole, Secrest seems more comfortable with details of Modigliani's life than with his art … But Secrest's primary aim is not a fresh take on Modigliani's art. Instead, she wishes to destroy, once and for all, what she calls the "legend" of his life." And ultimately, "it's not from the realm of legend that she wants to rescue Modigliani. She just wants a different legend, one that reflects better on the man she rightly admires."

Lance Esplund in the Wall Street Journal, is perhaps most critical of the biography, and more particularly of Modigliani's worthiness as a subject, concluding: "Unfortunately, Modigliani was at the center of one of the most inventive and turbulent periods in European art and history. Much more interesting things were happening in the lives and work of other artists, and in the city of Paris and the world at large, than in the life and art of Modigliani."

And for a different take, check out Brian Boucher's interview with Secrest in Art in America.

* Seemingly every spring and fall, Knopf publishes a single, big, artist biography that, like many of its books, gets the full-court press of book reviews and reading attention (Evans' Grant Wood last season, Wullschläger's Chagall not too long before that). We don't begrudge Knopf or the biographers for it, and many of the books have been extremely terrific (Richardson's Picasso, Spurling's Matisse) but still, it's a strange pattern.