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Kernstok was one of the founder members of the Group of Eight, a group of avantgarde painters who appeared in the 1910s. They sought increased expression and the dynamic emphasis of the structure of the body and space. Their role was particularly significant, appearing as they did at the same time as other new avantgarde trends in European art, echoing them yet never giving a poor imitation.
"Riders on the Shore" is Kernstok's chef d'oeuvre as well as being an epoch-making work of the Group of Eight. It was exhibited in 1911 at the National Salon in the first joint show of the Group of Eight.
The duality of the lively foreground filled with forcefully constructed figures and the more naturalistic subdued background show the intermediary stage of Kernstok's search for new expression. The background is the landscape around Nyergesújfalu, where the painter worked for years and where he ran an art school during the 1919 Republic of Councils.
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