In the tireless struggle to give women a place in the history of art we find Gabriele Münter, one of the founders of The Blue Rider: the most influential German group of expressionists of the twentieth century. After years in the shadow of Kandinsky, Münter’s work will have a space at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. The show, which is presented as the first retrospective of the Berlin artist in Spain, can be visited until February 9, 2025.
With more than 100 works, the exhibition takes a journey through Münter’s different creative stages: her years as a photographer in the United States, her time as a student at Phalanx, the trips to Europe and Africa in which she experimented with post-impressionism, her period as an expressionist, her exile to Scandinavia and the years after World War I, in which the artist wanted to portray the women of the Belle Époque.
The Blue Rider: a reaction to the interwar period
Münter, having been one of Kandinsky’s favorite pupils, was able to exert her influence on The Blue Rider, which sought to show a subjective vision of the world through painting.
The members of this group (among them the Russian Marianne Von Werefkin) used vivid tones, violent strokes and thick brushstrokes to adapt reality to their perspective. They did so to express feelings, often derived from dissatisfaction with the European philosophy of the interwar period (1918-1939). Freedom and the human condition were the themes that most concerned these artists, whose works have gone down to posterity for their ingenious symbolism and mastery of color.
Information for the visit
The Münter exhibition is on view Tuesday through Sunday during regular museum hours (10:00 am to 7:00 pm except Saturdays, when it is open from 10:00 am to 11:00 pm). The price of the general admission is 14 €, and the reduced price (over 65, pensioners and students), 10 €. There is the possibility of entering the room for free on Saturday nights, from 21:00 to 23:00 h (except on November 16, when the museum closes at 19:00 h).