Gabriele Münter (1877-1962) had everything to be another victim of the artistic system that historically marginalized women. She could not enter the Academy of Arts in Berlin because until 1919 it was prohibited for female creators; She had a long relationship with a famous painter, Vasili Kandinsky, who was able to reduce her to the “girlfriend of” and was part of an avant-garde group, The Blue Rider, led by men.
Despite this, she was received in exile as one of the founders of German Expressionism, she had the support of an influential gallery owner and her art helped her survive. The reputation he already enjoys in Germany is spreading internationally, as evidenced by his first anthology outside of Germany, at the Thyssen Museum, open since Tuesday.
“It had a fundamental relevance in life. We are rediscovering her in Spain, but she had a lot of recognition and weight as an artist at that time,” says one of the curators of the exhibition, Marta Ruiz del Arbol. The Berliner’s way of painting, with intense, contrasting colors and barely defined shapes with a black outline, developed what was known as German Expressionism in the first third of the 20th century. To narrate the pictorial and personal motivations behind that style, the exhibition Gabriele Münter, the great expressionist painteropen until February 9, 2025, brings together nearly 150 of his works, including paintings, photographs, drawings and engravings. The pieces cover a production period of 55 years.
To demonstrate this evolution of his painting, the exhibition is organized chronologically, from post-impressionism in its early phase to an expressive color that made it one of the symbols of The Blue Rider. Before, in a previous room, are gathered the self-portraits that the author made between 1908 and 1914, but which she kept private and only exhibited at the end of her career. Also included are photographs that Kandinsky took of her on the various trips they took together during their 12-year relationship. Although Münter fled from his shadow and his work acquired value on its own, he believed that it had left him a stigma. He wrote in 1926 in his diary: “In the eyes of many, I was only an unnecessary complement to Kandinsky. “It is too easily forgotten that a woman can be a creative artist in her own right with real and original talent.”
Photographs, landscapes and still lifes
The first section of the exhibitionBeginnings in black and whitehighlights the passion that the artist had for photography. In 1899 he was given one of Kodak’s new portable cameras, with which he set out to tour Texas, Missouri and Arkansas in the United States, where he had family. “Photography became his teacher, it taught him how to look. It significantly influenced her in her way of composing the scenes that were repeated in her painting,” says Ruiz del Arbol. In many of the snapshots, Münter intentionally includes his shadow to be part of the work in a subtle way. An impulse that he also transferred to canvases when he portrayed himself from behind in paintings with different settings, such as Boat ride (1910) either Breakfast with the Birds (1934).
The 10 chapters of the exhibition are crossed by the themes that the artist never left behind: landscapes, still lifes, interiors and portraits. “What he captures in his work is his immediate surroundings,” explains Ruiz del Arbol. In the case of natural and urban views, the curator highlights that her visit in 1908 to the idyllic town of Murnau, located in the Bavarian Alps, had a lot to do with it. There is a before and after this encounter with fierce nature: it went from a short, pasted brushstroke, as in Aloe (1905), to another more intense, fluid and simplified form, visible in Alameda before a mountain (1909). Like his expressionist companions, he sought the “essence” and dispensed with the anecdotal.
His still lifes or still lifes are not typical genre paintings either. It makes objects dialogue with their environment, whether with mirrors —Still life with mirror (1913)—or with landscapes: Still life in front of the yellow house (1953). But what Münter really stood out for was his portraits, with an evident predilection for children and women. She was so skilled with them that she survived making them to order during her exile in Sweden (1915-1920), where she was received “as a relevant representative of the international avant-garde,” as one of the exhibition’s posters highlights. The German gave shape and volume to the faces with color.
“He revealed his skill in combining the reduction of elements with fidelity to the physical resemblance of the person portrayed,” highlights the curator. In neutral backgrounds and with a black line that borders the bodies of its models, it reflects pride (Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin1909), the passage of time in the body (Murnau Woman1909) and confusion (Heard, portrait of Jawlensky1909). For Münter, portraiture was the most difficult and daring genre, but the one with which he most related, as he wrote in his diary: “Other children drew stories; I wasn’t even trying to represent events or actions. The only thing that captivated me about the person was his immutable appearance, the characteristic way in which he expressed his essence.”
Capturing the essence, raw emotions and deeply internal states were the objectives that the expressionists pursued. Its creators promoted it from the east through the group The Bridgefounded in 1905 in Dresden, and from the south, in Munich, with The Blue Ridercreated in 1911 after a dispute with the Munich Artists’ Association. Of The Blue Riderthe exhibition rescues a group photo with all its members; as equals, with arms crossed, looking like a Gabriele Münter.
To accompany this exhibition, the museum has published, together with the Astiberri publishing house, the comic by Mayte Alvarado Gabriele Münter. The blue landswhere the power that the landscape had on it is evident.
#Gabriele #Münter #girlfriend #finally #recognizing #role #founding #mother #German #Expressionism
