Art is divine

Freedom, Friendship, Creativity

by Micha Christos

TATE MODERN

London

From April 25 to October 20, 2024

 

 THE EXPRESSIONISTS

Franz Marc Cows, Red, Green, Yellow, 1911. Lenbachhaus Munich

 Robert Delaunay Circular Shapes, Moon no. 1, 1913 Lenbachhaus Munich and Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich

Marianne von Werefkin, Self-portrait I, c.1910 Lenbachhaus Munich

 

 

 

This exhibition tells the story of an international circle of friends from the early 20th century, all united to transform modern art. T he creators thus compose “The Blue Rider” with their sculptures, paintings and pho tographs combined with performances and sounds.

 

130 works brought together in the United Kingdom for the first time in more than 60 years, thanks to a collaboration with the Lenbachhaus in Munich and rare loans from public and private collections. Famous artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Franz Marc and Paul Klee are presented alongside previously neglected figures.  The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) was a network of diverse, loosely affiliated artists, linked by their desire to express their personal experiences and spiritual ideas.

 

They published their revolutionary Almanac in 1912, edited by Kandinsky and Marc, and held two public exhibitions in 1911 and 1912. T he collective brought together highly individual creators from across Western and Eastern Europe and the United States to form «a union of various countries to serve a single purpose.”

 

They proclaimed that “all work, called art, knows neither borders nor nations, only humanity”. Before the First World War, Munich was a center of artistic experimentation where different cultures and experiences converged.


Maria Franck-Marc Girl with Toddler, circa 1913 Lenbachhaus Munich © Legal succession of the artist

The exhibition concludes by showing how Blue Rider artists ensured their lasting legacy in ways we recognize today. Publishing manifestos and editorials, organizing exhibitions, touring, and fos tering relationships with museums and galleries, Blue Rider artists ensured the longevity of their movement and their works. With the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the collective was dispersed, but its ideas and aspirations for a transnational creative community still resonate powerfully today. “A union of diverse countries to serve a single goal” is a strong and free message that is fundamentally relevant today as conflicts erupt on all sides and the freedom to think, express and create is in such danger in many nations who forget that we are only one humanity on a wonderful blue ball endangered by so much ego and stupidity.

 

 

Albert Einstein said that he could not yet prove that the universe is infinite, but unfortunately for the stupidity he was certain of it. T hese artists understood the beauty of difference and wonderfully left room for individuality

for the good of the community.

 

 

 Franz Marc Tiger, 1912 Lenbachhaus Munich, Donation of the Bernhard and Elly Koehler Foundation 1965


Franz Marc Deer in the Snow II, 1911 Lenbachhaus Munich, Gift of Elly Koehler 

Wassily Kandinsky Improvisation Deluge, 1913 Lenbachhaus Munich, Donation of Gabriele Münter, 1957