[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/girlwithnose.jpg” caption=”Paula Modersohn-Becker, Bildnis einer Bauerin (Madchen mit Nase), c. 1900, Etching, McMaster University Collection. Photo by Jennifer Petteplace.”]The McMaster Museum of Art has acquired three works of art — two etchings and a drawing — by one of the most important representatives of early Expressionism, Paula Modersohn-Becker (German, 1876 – 1907). This is a significant addition to McMaster's already nationally recognized collection of early 20th century German graphics.

“The Modersohn-Becker acquisitions are significant, of course, because they add to our important German Expressionist collection, but they are also important in the museum world's move to correct the inequalities of the past,” said Carol Podedworny, director and curator of the McMaster Museum of Art.

“Though Kathe Kollwitz and Paula Modersohn-Becker were two principle figures in the expressionist movement in Germany, their work has often been under-represented in museum collections. Case in point: despite having one of the largest and best expressionist collections in North America, the MMA has only a handful of Kollwitz's and no Modersohn-Beckers up until the date of this most recent purchase. It is important to note that the outstanding German museum in Bremen, the Kunsthalle Bremen, has just produced a huge retrospective of the artist's work, including a 400-page catalogue.”

Paula Becker was born in Dresden in 1876 and moved to Bremen in 1892. By 1896, she was attending art school in London and meeting artists from the Worpswede group. She eventually married Worpswede artist, Otto Modersohn.

One of the first German artists to absorb the lessons of French modernism, Modersohn-Becker was also one of the most advanced artists of her day. It was her incorporation of French formal means, balanced by her German aesthetic ideals, which led to her work's profound artistic formal vocabulary and thematic content. The MMA purchases reveal both her definitive subject — the humble, peasant women at work and rest — as well as her avant-garde tendencies.

The Paula Modersohn-Becker acquisitions were purchased using funds from the H. H. Levy Estate Trust Fund. They are on display at the McMaster Museum of Art until June 14 as part of the Museum's German Expressionism: Selections from the Permanent Collection exhibition.