If asked to describe my work in photography, I would reply Conceptual, Abstract, Expressionism and so I was sad to have let pass the Tate Exhibition “Expressionists: Kandinsky, Munter and The Blue Rider”, 25 April – 20 October 2024.

There are some videos posted on YouTube that folks have create of the Exhibition, such as an introductory talk and a perception of what the exhibition was like.

A couple of points I was fascinated by were the revisit to the idea of art created from personal experience and of the spiritual, both items I can identify with from a Final Major Project – Past Present 2020. The other was the discontinuance of the Blue Rider movement due to the start of the Great War that led me to discover how Expressionism did continue on, albeit in other movements.

I was pleased to discover or reaffirm the following taken verbatim and for reference here the ideas from a brief analysis:

Key Continuations of Expressionism:

1. Die Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity) – 1920s

After the war, Expressionism split into different strands, one of which was Neue Sachlichkeit, a movement driven by disillusionment with idealism and a focus on realism and social critique.

Key Artists: Otto Dix, George Grosz, Max Beckmann.

Their work retained the expressive distortion and intensity of early Expressionism but was now focused on grim reality, the trauma of war, and social injustice rather than the mystical themes of Der Blaue Reiter.

2. The Bauhaus & Expressionist Influence

Wassily Kandinsky, one of the key members of the Blue Rider, continued his exploration of spiritual abstraction at the Bauhaus (founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius).

While the Bauhaus is more associated with modernist design and functionalism, Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and others maintained the Expressionist idea of inner necessity and spiritual abstraction.

Key Themes: Pure abstraction, colour symbolism, and form as a means of spiritual expression.

3. Scandinavian & Nordic Expressionism

Edvard Munch, a precursor to Expressionism, continued painting through the 1920s and 1930s, exploring psychological states and existential themes.

Nordic Expressionists such as Emil Nolde (despite being linked to Nazi Germany) maintained the tradition of intense colour and personal vision.

4. Abstract Expressionism (1940s–50s)

The spiritual aspirations of Expressionism found a new life in Abstract Expressionism in the United States, particularly in the work of:

Jackson Pollock, who explored automatism and the subconscious.

Mark Rothko, who aimed for spiritual transcendence through colour fields.

Willem de Kooning, who distorted figures in a way reminiscent of German Expressionists.

Many German Expressionist artists fled to the U.S., influencing the development of modernist abstraction, particularly through exile artists like Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann.

5. Postwar German Expressionism (Neo-Expressionism, 1970s–80s)

The 1970s and 1980s saw a revival of Expressionist concerns with personal experience, intense colour, and distortion in Neo-Expressionism.

Artists like Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz, and Jörg Immendorff drew upon the themes of war, memory, and existential struggle, echoing the psychological depth of earlier Expressionism.

Summary

While the Blue Rider movement ended with World War I, the core Expressionist idea of conveying subjective experience, emotion, and the spiritual in art continued in many different forms:

Social critique in Neue Sachlichkeit.

Spiritual abstraction in Bauhaus and Abstract Expressionism.

Psychological depth in postwar and Neo-Expressionist art.

For my part I take from this the named artists as a source of further research, which for me will bias towards photographic art.

Already on my radar are Rothko and Albers so some new names to follow up on Abstract Expressionism. Also, the mention of themes of war, memory, and existential struggle are prescient. In particular expansion of the existential aspect of former struggles and our gains since may be a extension of my work.

I’m glad to have come back to my Blog if only to store this information so it is not lost to me. The fire is re-lighted.