Wassily Kandinsky liked riders, Franz Marc liked horses, both loved blue. The name Blue Rider (Blaue Reiter) was coined by the two artists over coffee at Marc's summerhouse in Sindelsdorf according to Kandinsky. The seemingly casual encounter became historic as the name intended for the title of a publication and related exhibitions, would eventually designate a tightknit group of artists based in Munich and their transnational connections from France, Italy, East Europe to the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. Preceded by the N. K. V. M. ( Neue Künstlervereinigung München), the Blue Rider's gestation was marred by broken friendships and reputations in the midst of a turbulent pre-war period, a flourishing time for German expressionism. The publication of the almanac in 1912 concretized the ideas behind the inclusive Blue Rider reaching to painters, sculptors, musicians, composers, poets, dancers, art critics, writers and ensured its posterity. Gabriele Münter, a pillar of the group, became the guardian of its legacy hiding documents and works of art considered degenerate during two world wars. Upon her 80th birthday in 1957 she donated one thousand pieces to the Lenbachhaus. Most of the one hundred and thirty rarely seen works gathered for the exhibition Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and The Blue Rider are drawn from the collection. Paintings, photographs, documents, sculptures and personal objects fill twelve spacious rooms at Tate Modern in London.
Wassily Kandinsky was forty years old when he painted Couple on a Horseback (1907). Glowing in the dim light, the enchanting work illustrates an early period of the painter who drew his themes from Russian folklore and his memories from a previous trip in a Northern Province of the Russian Empire. Nearby, Gabriel Münter's black and white photographs document her voyage to the South of the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. If the initial display appears quite bare, it is followed by an abundance of paintings in the next rooms, offering a glimpse into the life of a small circle of friends. We can see a candid portrait of Kandinsky in short pants and leg warmers in deep conversation with Erma Bossi over coffee (Kandinsky and Erma Bossi at the Table, 1912), or having pastries and coffee (Man at the Table (Kandinsky)), 1911, both works by Gabriele Münter. She also depicts Alexej von Jawlensky, Olga von Hartmann, or catches an intimate moment between the couple Jawlensky-Werefkin during an excursion in the mountains. Wassily Kandinsky paints a portray of Gabriele Münter (Kallmunz-Gabriele Münter Painting II, 1903), Franz Marc of Maria Franck, August Macke paints Elizabeth Epstein who paints herself, so does Marianne von Werefkin. The artists become familiar as they pose for each other and also share pictures of their surroundings. Fauves and Matisse are not far when Wassily Kandinsky paints his dining room and his bedroom in Munich's Schwabing neighborhood. Five of his paintings side by side made in Murnau between 1908 and 1910 about a garden, a street, a church or a cow, reveal the subtle path of the artist from expressionism to abstraction as a yellow horse (With a Yellow Horse, 1909) appears nearby. Their international connections are not forgotten and Robert Delaunay, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee, are featured with two or three paintings each, scattered among the show.
The exhibition takes a surprising turn as the joyful, colorful display abruptly turns black and white. A series of photographs from Gabriele Münter, memories of her trip to Tunisia, triggers comments about colonialism, orientalism and exoticism to label artists most likely looking for new colors under new skies. "Performing Gender" in Room 5 features two artists, the androgynous dancer Alexander Sakharoff and the painter Werefkin who made his portrait, bringing up comments about sexuality, gender, the "third sex", but failing to mention that he was happily married for more than thirty years to Clotilde von Derp, herself a famous dancer and the couple was known as "The Sakharoffs". We are told that Werefkin who stated "I am not a woman, I am not a man, I am I" was "resenting gender binaries". She was an artist, longtime companion, soulmate, lover of Jawlensky. Lining up a dark passage, behind glass like in a curios cabinet, a selection of heteroclite personal objects and art pieces reveal the artists' broad interests and sources of inspiration.
Following the interlude, the exhibition goes back on track reuniting Kandinsky, Marc and his wife Maria Franck-Marc in the next room where the noticeably larger works project an explosion of colors. Three paintings side by side from Franz Marc made in 1912 reflect his mystical quest (Doe in the Monastery Garden, 1912) and his technical mastery. Merging cubism, orphism, futurism, In the Rain (1912) represents a lively domestic scene of Marc's wife and dog under sheaths of rain surrounded by nature while Tiger (1912) and later in the show Cows, Red, Green, Yellow (1911), Deer in the Woods II (1912), illustrate his higher goals born from years of studying theology and Eastern religions, driving him to look for a natural order within the animal kingdom and the "underlying mystical design of the visible world". His life was unfortunately cut short on the battle field in Verdun in 1916. Kandinsky's religious paintings (St George III (1911), All Saints (1911), Improvisation Deluge (1913) or On the Theme of the Deluge (1913-14) ) are a step toward his ultimate search defined in his book On the Spiritual in Art, realized through a process of abstraction on the canvas. Objects "become immaterial" melting in a chaos of colors and shapes, as perspective becomes irrelevant in an infinite cosmic world. Schoenberg's music fills the next room and we can listen to his early atonal works (Second String Quartet op.10 and Three Piano Pieces, op.11) while looking at Impression III (Concert), 1911. It is a unique experience filled with emotions (at least for me) as we go back in time to the night of January 2, 1911, and connect with the artists. A brief overview of color theory by Goethe, Chevreul, is outshined by a display of Marc's personal tool in a glass case. He used a prism to find "pure colors". A modern version is made available for the visitor to look at Deer in the Snow II, 1911. Color and light are inseparable and Lichtdecker Kandinsly, an environmental light installation from Olafur Eliasson premiered at the Lengenhaus in 2006, offers variations of Improvisation Gorge, 1914, from Kandinsky under white light and shows its effect on our perception of colors. For a grand finale, a collection of works seems randomly hung on the walls. It represents artists closely or loosely associated with the Blue Rider, well known or less known, like a reunion of friends, the Delaunays, Klee, Bloch, Burliuk and of course Kandinsky, Münter, Marc, Werefkin, Macke. Twenty paintings to be savored one at a time.
Kandinsky and Marc come out as the stars of the show, the former with more than twenty works of his pre-war career during which he had a huge impact on the birth of abstraction and the latter with six paintings rarely seen in one venue. The closest I have come so far with Marc's paintings is at The Phillips Collection where Deer in the Forest I, 1913, is hung in the children's room. Gabriele Münter overshadows the exhibition with paintings, woodcuts, reverse glass paintings, photographs, but her influence appears to be as a material and emotional support for the members of the Blue Rider, so is her friend Maria Franck Marc.
Wall texts are the backbone of an exhibition, leading the viewer throughout the show. Here the box-ticking about imperialism, colonialism, racism, neurodivergence, gender fluidity..., becomes tedious and off subject as the texts provide definitions of polytheism or theosophy, belittling the viewer.
Enjoy! It might be a while until we see another reunion of the Blue Rider's members.
photographs by the author:
Wassily Kandinsky "Murnau with Church I", 1910
Franz Marc "Doe in the Monastery Garden", 1912
Gabriele Münter "Jawlensky and Werefkin", 1909
