Tate Modern’s joyously bold exhibition ‘Expressionists’ tells the story of a circle of friends and close collaborators known as The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter), an association of artists brought together by their desire to express personal experiences and spiritual ideas.

Led by Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter, this international group formed ‘a union of various countries to serve one purpose’, namely the transformation of early 20th century modern art through radical experimentations with color, light, sound and performance. They proclaimed that ‘the whole work, called art, knows no borders or nations, only humanity.’ The exhibition highlights the sensorial impact of their work by including experiential environments focused on single paintings, such Franz Marc’s 1911 Deer in the Snow II, presented through the lens of color theory and optics and Kandinsky’sImpression III (Concert) 1911, revealing his interest in synesthesia.

Drawing on the world’s richest collection of Expressionist masterpieces at the Lenbachhaus in Munich, alongside rare loans from public and private collections, including works never previously seen in the UK, this major exhibition emphasizes the multicultural and international nature of this vibrant moment in early Modernist art.