On Wednesday 26 June, I visited the Tate Modern’s collection of the avant-garde Der Blaue Reiter group (Blue Rider) that has been on since April this year. The pioneering group of artists worked primarily in Munich and the Bavarian Alps in the years shortly before the onset of the Great War (the group disbanded in 1914). Often the boldness and unsettling nature of their art provokes, almost prophetically, images of the uncertainty of the first half of the twentieth century.
Der Blaue Reiter were formed of members from Bavaria, Russia, and elsewhere in central Europe. Franz Marc, whose work features heavily throughout the exhibition, was labelled a ‘degenerate’ by the Nazi Party. The group represents, to my mind, the last cry of a dying epoch. Yet, perhaps that is a rather anachronistic perception. Yes, matters of gender, race and general expression are examined at length – courtesy of the concise information points found in each room of the exhibition – but at times this felt exhaustive. Certain critics have said that they found the collection to include pieces of great fortitude, mixed with ones whose quality the connoisseur would describe as indifferent.
I feel this to be an unfair point of view. As a memoir of a movement in its entirety, it is only right that various works, no matter their perceived marketability or aesthetic proficiency, are included. Nevertheless, I felt that the information thrown at the viewer could have included slightly more detail on the origins of the artists. The room dedicated to the musing by Marianne von Werefkin of Alexander Sacharoff, a strikingly blatant (for the time) representative of gender fluidity, explains who Sacharoff was but I found little else to supplement the rather randomly compiled material accompanying The Dancer – the painting of Sacharoff that adorned that trademark of worthwhile exhibitions, the £20 tote bag.
The Expressionists were fascinated by eastern European religiosity, with religious artefacts and paraphernalia featuring heavily as inspirations. Alongside religion as ‘high art’, music, particularly opera, influenced the painting of Wassily Kandinsky (the father of western abstraction, fondly dubbed). Kandinsky’s Compositions, Improvisations and Impressions reflect the role of music, and his own synesthesia within his work. He viewed the relationship between listening and the manipulation of colour as mutually inclusive in his theory-philosophical work On the Spiritual in Art:
"Our hearing of colours is so precise ... Colour is a means of exerting a direct influence upon the soul. Colour is the keyboard. The eye is the hammer. The soul is the piano with its many strings. The artist is the hand that purposely sets the soul vibrating by means of this or that key. Thus it is clear that the harmony of colours can only be based upon the principle of purposefully touching the human soul."
The almost hyper-Romantic language employed by Kandinsky, whilst unique in form, was also erstwhile and of its time. Theories of this sort abound in the works of W.B. Yeats, and the fierce criticism and sharing of ideas in Kandinsky’s own intellectual friendship with the Vienese composer Arnold Schoenberg is also testament to this. This character of the pioneers of Expressionism became clearer toward the end of the gallery, in the final two rooms - where the colour and semi-scientific nature that constitutes the boldness of this genre are clear and final. A collection of letters between Kandinsky, Gabrielle Münter (whom I have not discussed in this piece but featured dominantly within the exhibition), and their friends and dealers added a tangible, human touch to the otherwise removed artists – excepting those who engaged in self-portraiture.
The exhibition successfully displayed the transitory, uncomfortable style of the Expressionists in all its vivid glory. Whether or not the background information was lacking to my eyes as a critic is neither here nor there, I came away knowing and appreciating the breadth of this style more than I had before. The exhibition closes in September; if you are able, it is well worth a visit.
Editor’s Note: Make sure to sign up for free to the Tate Collective, which gives under 25’s access to exhibitions across the Tate galleries for just £5 (considerably less than the usual admission fees!)
