The story of expressionist art, with its bold colours, off-kilter figures and presciently unsettling atmosphere of pre-first world war Germany, is usually told through the prism of two groups of artists: Die Brücke (The Bridge), operating out of Dresden and featuring Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel; and Der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider) in Munich, which was led by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. But a new exhibition at London’s Tate Modern focusing on the Blue Rider – the first major show on the subject in the UK for more than 60 years – explicitly seeks to both expand and complicate that established narrative.
A clue to the show’s thesis comes in its title, Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider. Gabriele Münter was a wealthy photographer, painter and partner of Kandinsky who had undertaken part of her art education and development in the United States. Her elevation above Marc in the Blue Rider story not only sees a woman placed at the centre of this remarkable artistic enterprise, but also serves to expand it beyond the borders of Germany and to celebrate a genuinely international experiment.
