Art Institute of Chicago
October 12, 2024 through January 12, 2025
Paula Modersohn-Becker. Self-Portrait with Two Flowers in Her Raised Left Hand, 1907. Jointly owned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Debra and Leon Black, and Neue Galerie New York, Gift of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder.
The Art Institute of Chicago has announced Paula Modersohn-Becker: I Am Me, on view from October 12, 2024 through January 12, 2025. This exhibition marks Modersohn-Becker’s first museum retrospective in the United States. Showing the full range of her achievement over her career, the exhibition includes more than 50 paintings, 15 large-scale drawings, and five etchings.
Paula Modersohn-Becker charted her own path in turn-of-the-century Germany. Her frank portrayals of the bodily experiences of motherhood, pregnancy, youth, and old age introduced a bold perspective not often seen in early 20th-century art. The introspective Modersohn-Becker painted herself many times, including in the first nude self-portraits known to have been made by a woman.
“This exhibition is much anticipated and long overdue. It will allow visitors to see first-hand Modersohn-Becker’s forceful works of art, ones that have solidified her posthumous place as a feminist icon,” said Jay A. Clarke, Rothman Family Curator, Prints and Drawings. “The timeless images she created of young women in forest settings envisioned a deep affinity between the landscape and its occupants, viewing their identities as intimately intertwined. Her portraits, self-portraits, and figure paintings captured the inner essence of her subjects and depicted the female body frankly and knowingly.”
Modersohn-Becker’s innovative style, which emphasized expression over representation, placed her at the forefront of experimental art in Europe as she approached subjects such as figure drawing, landscape, still-life, and portraiture.
Together her works, and the exhibition’s title, which comes from one of Modersohn-Becker’s letters, show an artist deeply invested in both artistic and personal expression and self-determination.
Paula Modersohn-Becker: I Am Me is curated by the Art Institute of Chicago’s Jay A. Clarke, Rothman Family Curator, Prints and Drawings, and Jill Lloyd, independent scholar, Neue Galerie New York.
This exhibition is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and Neue Galerie New York.
Paula Modersohn-Becker
(1876-1907)
Upper Body of a Woman Leaning toward the Left, Alongside a Small Sketch of the Same Motif, 1898
Charcoal on paper
© Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen
Paula Modersohn-Becker
(1876-1907)
Sheep in the Birch Forest, 1903
Oil tempera on cardboard
Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College, Shreveport, Louisiana
Paula Modersohn-Becker
(1876-1907)
Girl Blowing a Flute in the Birch Forest, 1905
Oil tempera on canvas
© Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen
Paula Modersohn-Becker
(1876-1907)
Standing and Kneeling Nude Girls in Front of Poppies II, 1906
Oil tempera on canvas
Lübecker Museen, Museum Behnhaus Drägerhaus gestiftet aus der Sammlung Dr. Kurt Wünsche, Zwickau
© Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen
Paula Modersohn-Becker
(1876-1907)
Portrait of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1906
Oil tempera on cardboard mounted on wood
Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen, on loan from a Private Collection
© Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen
Paula Modersohn-Becker
(1876-1907)
Self-Portrait with Blue Glass, ca. 1902
Oil tempera on cardboard
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, acquired in 1968, formerly Hugo Borst Collection
© Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen
Paula Modersohn-Becker
(1876-1907)
Still-Life with Clay Jug, Peonies, and Oranges, May/June 1906
Oil tempera on cardboard
Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, Bremen/Berlin
© Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen
Paula Modersohn-Becker
(1876-1907)
Kneeling Mother with Child at Her Breast, 1906
Oil tempera on canvas mounted on wood
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Nationalgalerie Berlin
© Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen
