Blumenblatt - Vogelvase 1940

Gabriele Münter made this watercolour, "Blumenblatt - Vogelvase," most likely sometime in the first half of the twentieth century. The vase of flowers motif connects with the history of women artists and their traditional association with the domestic sphere. This image creates meaning through a seeming naive, almost folk-art-like style, typical of the avant-garde expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, of which Münter was a key member, along with Kandinsky and Franz Marc. Note the bold outlines and flat, unmodulated areas of bright colour. The artist spent much of her working life in Bavaria, Germany. We know that Münter and her associates collected examples of Bavarian folk art, especially reverse-painted glass paintings, and it’s clear that she took inspiration from this tradition, with its use of bold outlines and bright, unmodulated colour. Art historians are able to draw conclusions like these about the meaning of artworks through careful examination of the culture in which they were made.