Gabriele Münter

by Reinhold Heller

The work of Gabriele Munter (1877-1962) shines like a jewel in the male-dominated avant-garde Expressionist movement. Most accounts of the frenetically creative years in Munich and Murnau fail to recognize the uniqueness of Munter's vision: her work is unjustly eclipsed by that of her colleagues, not least Vassily Kandinsky's. This book redresses the balance. Some one hundred of the artist's most seminal works are reproduced in this lavishly illustrated volume; they include several from private collections that have never before been published. Gabriele Munter: The Years of Expressionism, 1903-1920 is an exploration of Munter's crucial contribution to German Expressionism in the genres of landscape, portrait and still-life painting. Her place and significance in the development of this movement are critically examined, with particular attention paid to the iconography of her paintings and the lyrical strength of her work.