The Blue Mountain (Der Blaue Berg)

Made by Vasily Kandinsky during 1908 - 1908, the original artwork of this expressionist painting that currently held by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York measures 41.75 × 38 inches (106 × 96.6 cm). In this Der Blaue Berg, or famously known as The Blue Mountain, Kandinsky’s use of the horse-and-rider motif symbolized his crusade against conventional aesthetic values and his dream of a better, more spiritual future through the transformative powers of art. The rider is featured in many woodcuts, temperas, and oils, from its first appearance in the artist’s folk-inspired paintings, executed in his native Russia at the turn of the century, to his abstracted landscapes made in Munich during the early 1910s.