Impressive Expressionism at Tate Modern

Our highlights from a major new exhibition

The Expressionists were an important art movement, channelling emotion and spirituality through their paintings, and Tate Modern has some great works by them in its new exhibition: Expressionists: Kandinsky, Münter and the Blue Rider.

But unlike, say, the Impressionists, the individual artists from the movement aren’t as well known, so I’ve picked some of my favourite artists from the exhibition and their artworks that stood out for me.

1. Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky is arguably the best known of the artists in this exhibition, and while he’s best known for his colourful abstract compositions that went on to influence many Western abstract artists that came after him, I was drawn to this earlier artwork of a couple on horseback.

They are of the Komi people¹ and painting them might have reflected Kandinsky’s increasing awareness of his own cultural heritage beyond his Russian birthplace - born in Moscow, he was the son of a tea merchant from Siberia and a Mongolian aristocrat. It’s a beautiful painting and the colourful cityscape in the background has a dreamy look to it, which, even though this was long before he would move towards abstraction in his artistic practice, might hint at his future interests: a few years after this painting (1906-1907) was created, in 1911 Kandinksy co-founded The Blue Rider group - a movement where artists stepped away from traditional painting constraints and towards something more spiritual.

2. Marianne Werefkin

The exhibition rightly points out that Expressionism wasn’t solely a male movement and includes several female painters, including Marianne Werefkin. This painting of skaters under moonlight is magical but also has a sense of the sinister, as we see a blur of silhouettes slicing up the ice in the darkness.

There’s also a self-portrait of hers on display where her eyes are painted red and they almost glow in one of the most intense paintings in the exhibition.