Gabriele Münter (1877-1962) had every reason to be another victim of the artistic system that historically marginalized women. She could not enter the Berlin Academy of Arts because until 1919, it was forbidden for female designers; She had a long relationship with a famous painter, Vasily Kandinsky, who managed to reduce her to the status of “girlfriend of” and was part of an avant-garde group, The Blue Rider, led by men.
Despite this, she was received into 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 extends internationally, as evidenced by his first anthology outside Germany, at the Thyssen Museum, open since Tuesday.
“It had a fundamental importance in life. We rediscovered her in Spain, but at that time she had a lot of recognition and weight as an artist,” explains one of the curators of the exhibition, Marta Ruiz del Arbol. The Berliners’ style of painting, with intense, contrasting colors and barely defined shapes with black outlines, developed what is known as German Expressionism in the first third of the 20th century. To tell the pictorial and personal motivations of this 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 beginnings 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 Kandinsky took of her during the various trips they took together during their 12-year relationship. Even though Münter has fled his shadow and his work has acquired value in its own right, he believes that it has left a stigma on him. He wrote in his diary in 1926: “In the eyes of many, I was only a useless complement to Kandinsky. “We forget too easily that a woman can be a creative artist in her own right with real and original talent. »
Photographs, landscapes and still lifes
The first part of the exhibitionBeginnings in black and whitehighlights the artist’s passion for photography. In 1899 he received one of Kodak’s new portable cameras, with which he went to visit Texas, Missouri and Arkansas in the United States, where he had family. “Photography became his teacher, it taught him to look. This significantly influenced him in the way he composed the scenes repeated in his painting,” explains Ruiz del Arbol. In many snapshots, Münter intentionally includes his shadow so that it becomes part of the work in a subtle way. An impulse that he also transmits to the paintings when he represents himself from behind in paintings with different settings, such as Boat trip (1910) either Breakfast with the Birds (1934).
The 10 chapters of the exhibition are crossed by themes that the artist has never abandoned: landscapes, still lifes, interiors and portraits. “What he captures in his work is his immediate environment,” explains Ruiz del Arbol. In the case of natural and urban views, the curator emphasizes 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 goes from a short pasted brushstroke, as in Aloe (1905), to another more intense, fluid and simplified form, visible in Alameda in front of a mountain (1909). Like his expressionist companions, he searches for “essence” and renounces the anecdotal.
His still lifes or still lifes are also not typical genre paintings. It brings objects into 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 especially distinguishes Münter are his portraits, with an obvious 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 the one of the exhibition posters. The German gave shape and volume to faces with color.
“He revealed his ability to combine the reduction of elements with fidelity to the physical resemblance of the person represented,” underlines the commissioner. 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 (Woman Murnau1909) and confusion (Heard, portrait of Jawlensky1909). For Münter, portraiture was the most difficult and daring genre, but also the one with which he identified most, as he wrote in his diary: “Other children drew stories; I wasn’t even trying to depict events or actions. The only thing that captivated me about this person was his unchanging appearance, the characteristic way with which he expressed his essence.
Capturing essence, raw emotions and deeply internal states were the goals pursued by the Expressionists. Its creators promoted it from the East through the group The bridgefounded in 1905 in Dresden and south to Munich, with The blue ridercreated in 1911 after a dispute with the Munich Artists’ Association. Of The blue riderthe exhibition saves a group photo with all its members; equal to equal, arms crossed, like Gabriele Münter.
To accompany this exhibition, the museum has published, in collaboration with Astiberri editions, the comic strip by Mayte Alvarado Gabriele Münter. The blue landswhere the power the landscape had over him is evident.
