Neue Künstlervereinigung

Neue Künstlervereinigung (NKV), exhibiting group founded in Munich, Germany, in 1909 by Wassily Kandinsky, Alexey von Jawlensky, Gabriele Münter, and numerous others who were united by opposition to the official art of Munich rather than by similarity of style.

The group held its first exhibition in December 1909, at Moderne Galerie Thannhauser, Munich. Members included Adolf Erbslöh, Alexander Kanoldt, Alfred Kubin, Marianne von Werefkin, Karl Hofer, and several other artists. The works exhibited, which reflected primarily the newer styles of Jugendstil and Fauvism, were not favourably received by the critics or the public.

The NKV’s second exhibition, held in September 1910 at Thannhauser, was international in scope and included, in addition to the members’ works, those of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Georges Rouault, Kees van Dongen, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Henri Le Fauconnier, and the brothers David and Vladimir Burlyuk. The exhibition was denounced by critics for, among other things, including foreign artists, especially Russians, who were considered a threat to Bavarian culture.

During preparations for the third NKV exhibition, held in December 1911 at Thannhauser, differences in aesthetic outlook caused a split in the group. The dissension was brought on partially by the jury’s rejection of Kandinsky’s large, rather abstract painting, Composition V (1911). Franz Marc (the last painter to join the group) and Kandinsky, favouring freedom of expression, became aligned against the more conservative art historian Otto Fischer (who later became the NKV’s spokesman), Kanoldt, and Erbslöh. Kandinsky and Marc left the association (as did Münter and Kubin), and together they formed a rival group, Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”), and exhibited their works that same month at Thannhauser, in rooms adjoining those of the NKV.