From 12 November 2024 to 9 February 2025 Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Self-Portrait, hacia 1909-1910. Oil on cardboard. 49 x 33,7 cm. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid © Gabriele Münter, VEGAP, Madrid, 2024

Gabriele Münter (1877-1962) was one of the founders of The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter), the legendary group of Expressionist artists based in Munich which emerged in late 1911, to which Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, among others, also belonged. Münter is well known as an artist in Germany but it is only in recent years that she has started to enjoy greater recognition in the rest of Europe. The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, which has four of her paintings in its collections, is now organising the first retrospective on the artist in Spain, thus continuing its project of researching and highlighting the work of so many great women artists and the place they deserve in the history of art.

Through 145 paintings, drawings, prints and photographs the exhibition aims to present not only Gabriele Münter’s artistic activities and the rich complexity of her work, but also an artist who rebelled against the limitations imposed on women of her day and who became one of the outstanding figures of German Expressionism at the start of the 20th century. Throughout her extensive career, on numerous occasions Münter demonstrated an ability to adapt, a tireless desire for experimentation and an openness to what was new or different. In her paintings, with their precise lines and intense colours, she immerses the viewer in her private world and through her highly perceptive gaze presents lovers, everyday objects, landscapes and herself, all refined to their essence.

The exhibition is the result of a collaborative project between the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation and the Städtische Galerie am Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau in Munich. It benefits from the support of the Comunidad de Madrid and the Art Foundation Mentor Lucerne. After its showing in Madrid the exhibition will be seen at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris.