Beschreibung:

GABRIELE MÜNTER (1877-1962)Friedhoftor (Murnau) inscribed and dated '08 Friedhoftor.' (on the reverse) oil on board 12 7/8 x 16 1/16 in (32.7 x 40.8 cm) Painted in Murnau in 1908 FootnotesThe authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Gabriele Münter und Johannes Eichner Stiftung. This work will be included in the forthcoming Gabriele Münter catalogue raisonné, currently being prepared. Provenance The artist's studio, Munich. Herbert Ernest Bates Collection, Kent. Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, no. 03218. Jean Peter Taylor Collection, San Francisco (acquired from the above on June 16, 1965). Thence by descent to the present owner in 1977. Exhibited London, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., Gabriele Münter Oil Paintings 1903-1937, September – October 1960, no. 8. "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." - Gabriele Münter As one of the pioneering artists of Der Blaue Reiter, Gabriele Münter played a significant part in the emergence of Germany's avant-garde and is one of the key female figures within the art historical discourse of the twentieth century. From a young age Münter yearned to be an artist, and went to study at the Ladies Art School in Düsseldorf in 1897 when she was twenty years old. The academic curriculum did not spark her interest or creativity and Münter decided to embark on an overseas adventure to the United Stated instead. Upon her return to Germany in 1901, Münter settled in Munich and enrolled into the experimental and progressive art classes taught at the Phalanx School. It was one of the very few academies in Germany where woman could study alongside men, and it was here where the artist explored her artistic freedom, paved a way to her own visual lexicon, and realized that art could be more than just a recreational skill. Münter's painting classes were taught by Wassily Kandinsky, who was the president of Phalanx and had lived and worked in Munich since 1897. Enthralled by his personality as well as his methodical approach to painting and spirituality, Münter was motivated to develop her artistic career. Their pupil-teacher relationship swiftly transformed into a romantic one, and the two were formally engaged in 1903. At the time Kandinsky was already married to a Russian woman, and although the pair was willing to separate, it was legally impossible to get a divorce. Nevertheless, Kandinsky would introduce Münter as 'my wife' from that point on. Their love relationship was greater than an official marriage according to Kandinsky, and they decided to travel together throughout Europe and North Africa from 1904 to 1907. Here she would continue to paint in search for her own style. After her studies at the Phalanx School, Münter's greatest challenge was mastering color techniques which she would test during her time abroad. She mostly painted impressionistic landscapes, but during her time in Paris in 1906 and 1907 her output slowly began to change. Münter familiarized herself with the color theories of Henri Matisse Vincent van Gogh Kees van Dongen and Paul Gauguin In Paris she also explored woodcuts, as the medium allowed Münter to clarify the relationship between color and plane. Encouraged by this experimental approach, she was finally able to reject the impressionistic painting techniques of staccato dabbing. Concurrently, the Fauves experienced artistic heights and their work was showcased all over Paris. Their liberation of color must have made a profound impression on her, although it would not have an immediate effect on her personal work. Howeve