Phalanx (art group)

Phalanx was a group of artists founded in 1901 in Munich, who wanted to work with artistic means against conservative rigidities in society and the arts. Even the name of the group was program as a citation of Phalanx, the battle formation in ancient Greece. The founding members were Wassily Kandinsky, Rolf Niczky, Waldemar Hecker, Hermann Obrist and Wilhelm Hüsgen. Kandinsky was elected Niczky next to the President of the Association and also as Head of the Phalanx School of Painting, which determines " School of Painting and life drawing ". The group organized exhibitions, in addition to exhibiting the works of its own members Claude Monet, Alfred Kubin, Lovis Corinth, Wilhelm Trübner, Albert Weisgerber, Paul Signac, Felix Vallotton and Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec.

In the " phalanx " met Kandinsky in 1902 Gabriele Münter, who studied there. She was his pupil, life companion and critic until they separated in 1914.

However, the acceptance of the group waned in the conservative Munich; made themselves less and less students, so that the exhibition and teaching had to be closed despite individual successes in 1904.

In 1909 through the initiative of Werefkin, Adolf Erbsloh, Alexei Jawlensky and Oscar Wittenstein an association of artists in the New Artists' Association of Munich. Kandinsky was first chairman, left the group in 1911 but the dispute to start in the same year the editorial community of the Blaue Reiter along with Franz Marc.