The Neue Künstlervereinigung München e.V (NKVM), ("Munich New Artist's Association", if literally translated from German) formed in 1909 in Munich around Wassily Kandinsky, and prefigured Der Blaue Reiter, the first modernist secession which is regarded as a forerunner and pathfinder for Modern art in 20th-century Germany.
The founding members were Wassily Kandinsky (who initially proposed the group), Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Gabriele Münter, Adolf Erbslöh and Alexander Kanoldt. These principal figures came together to study in Munich in 1909.
In 1909, 1910 and 1911, the NKVM organised three cycling exhibitions. The first cycle showed the original group and artists invited; the second cycle expanded to include French and Russian avant-garde artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque; the third and final cycle excluded most of the previous exhibitors, especially the secessionists of Der Blaue Reiter who launched their own parallel show in the same gallery, as a result of tensions within the NKVM.
The catalogue of the first NKVM exhibition lists 128 items by 16 artists: Paul Baum, Wladimir von Bechtejeff, Erma Bossi, Dresler, Eckert, Erbslöh, Pierre Girieud, Karl Hofer, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Kanoldt, Kogan, Alfreds Kubin, Münter, Pohle, Werefkin, and is accompanied by 14 reproductions and a list of prices.
On view beginning on December 1, 1909, at the Moderne Galerie in Munich, this exhibition traveled to 9 venues: