SHOW of the Week: What Today's Artists Can Learn From 'Expressionists' At Tate

Never has colour been so central to an artistic movement as it was to Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) - a loosely affiliated and diverse network of artists whom, connected by their desire to express personal experiences and spiritual ideas, banded together to form a 'union of various countries' through art. After more than 100 years (and international acclaim achieved by many individuals involved with the group), Tate Modern have decided to dedicate their next blockbuster exhibition Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider to the rich ideas of an artistic movement that contributed to the birth of modernism.

Although many of the individual artists accredited with spearheading Der Blaue Reiter have had work spotlighted in different exhibitions in recent years (Marianne von Werefkin featured heavily in the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition Making Modernism in 2022 while Kandinsky's work formed the backbone of Guggenheim's Around the Circle that same year), Tate's Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider marks the first time all artists have been brought together in a group show since the collective staged their own over 100 years ago in 1911 and 1912, respectively.

Beginning with the collective's core couple Kandinsky and Münter, the exhibition wastes no time in drawing the links between between each artist's success and their own dedication to solidifying an artist's network that brought creatives together far and wide (as well as each other). In 2018, The Paris Review wrote 'Münter prided herself on her fearlessness and boldness of style, working ceaselessly to make herself into an individual and to wield her partnership with Kandinsky as an asset'; a truth that extended itself deep into the lives of other members of the group.

When Franz Marc and Kandinsky published the groundbreaking Blue Rider Almanac in 1912, the group whose works make up the Tate exhibition (open to the public until 20 October) had already formed in Munich the year prior. However, this wasn't Marc nor Kandinsky's first foray into the world of artist networks. In fact, many of the collective's core painters - including Kandinsky, Marc and even Münter - had also been strongly associated with the N.K.V.M (Neue Künstlervereinigung München), an artistic and intellectual salon of which the previously mentioned Werefkin played host to. Frequently encouraging discussions that debated the latest ideas on music, literature, theatre, philosophy and art, N.K.V.M's USP lied in the conversations it cultivated, just as much as the paintings it produced. Making it no surprise that it was in these very interactions - many of which are depicted in the exhibition - artistic ideals we now so casually identify with Expressionism and even modernism were formed before the existence of Der Blaue Reiter, under the guidance of Werefkin. It's in these paintings, the ones that make an effort to illustrate just how formative such conversations were, where Tate's Expressionists exceeds critic's expectations.

From Erma Bossi's Portrait of Marianne Werefkin (c.1910) to Münter's own depiction of Bossi with Kandinsky in Kandinsky and Erma Bossi at the Table in Murnau (1912), the latter of which is a very earnest painting that suggests both the programmatic nature of the group’s beliefs and Kandinsky’s importance as a teacher and theorist. If one thing is made clear, it's that the binding thread connecting many of the works on display in Expressionists is rooted in nothing more than good old fashioned friendship, as proven by Münter herself when, in 1958, she told the American poet Édouard Roditi: 'We were only a group of friends who shared a common passion for painting as a form of self-expression. Each of us was interested in the work of the other... in the health and happiness of the others... I don't think we were ever as programmatic in our theories, as competitive or as self-assertive, as some of the modern schools'.

Although not explicitly, it's through curator Natalia Sidlina's inclusion of such works where Expressionists shines brightest, making you feel as if you're in the dining room with Münter, Kandinsky and whoever else, catching snippets of their worldly views - ones that still have potential to shock, even in 2024. Other revolutionary ideals can be seen in Bossi's uninhibitedly bold Circus, 1909, which demonstrates diverse urban experiences just as themes of sexuality, performance and androgyny overwhelm Werefkin's provocative 1909 portrait of dancer Alexander Sacharoff - one of many made during their collaboration.

At the heart of Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider is a kaleidoscopic whirlwind of experimentation proven by a mesmerising collection of paintings and photography depicting a multitude of landscapes and figurative portraiture. Efforts in looking to attach sound to painting or colour to sound are also highlighted in different rooms, certifying the idea that the expressionists were modern before the modernists came to be. Kandinsky's infamous colour theory is accredited with the Bauhaus but Tate sets the record straight by unveiling the artist's Impression III (Concert): a piece of work made in 1911 that reveals Kandinsky's interest in synaesthesia decades before the radical art school formed and ran with such beliefs. Through noting the importance of experimentation and collaboration, Expressionists does more than just transport 20th century artists into a 21st century gallery. The exhibition acts as a staunch reminder of how the seeds that lead to conversations spearheaded by the likes of Bauhaus protégée Walter Gropius and others in the 1920s and 1930s, were actually planted decades before, and it's all thanks to Der Blaue Reiter.

Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider is open to the public at Tate Modern until 20 October 2024.