The National Museum of Art in Timisoara (MNArT), which hosted the exhibition "Brancusi: Romanian resources and universal perspectives," in the year of the European Capital of Culture TM2023, is ready to welcome the exhibition "Paula Modersohn-Becker and the artists' colony of Worpswede. Drawings and graphics 1895 - 1906," from 20 March to 21 April.

The event contains works by Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907) and the artists with whom she created in the small community of Worpswede near Bremen.

"The photographs, drawings, illustrations or books in the exhibition are works that reflect the European artistic climate that generated essential encounters, but also personal trajectories of great scope and complexity. The exhibition celebrates the prominent presence of artist Paula Modersohn-Becker and highlights a broader cultural context, bringing to light the artistic community of Worpswede. In this favourable museum context, the exhibition 'Paula Modersohn-Becker and the artists' colony of Worpswede 1895 - 1906' becomes an opportunity to get to know and integrate new cultural territories, offering the opportunity to understand and contextualise works from the museum's permanent collections, created in similar periods," said Andreea Foanene, MNArT museographer, artist and co-curator of the exhibition, in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Wednesday.

The works on display mirror the close ties within the artists' colony at Worpswede, a picturesque place in northern Germany marked by difficult geography and an unfriendly climate. The artists who lived and worked together there developed symbiotic relationships that supported and inspired each other. The passing of the centuries created a moment of transition in art as well: several trends were born or radically transformed (Impressionism, Art Nouveau, Expressionism), many of these changes are visible in the works in the exhibition.

The works of the artists' colony, which included Otto Modersohn, Fritz Mackensen, Hans am Ende, Fritz Overbeck, Heinrich Vogeler and especially Paula Modersohn-Becker, are a symbol of a turning point in the history of art, in which new forms of artistic expression were assiduously sought.

Conceived as a travelling exhibition by curator Wulf Herzogenrath for the IFA (Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen), the exhibition "Paula Modersohn-Becker and the Worpswede Artists' Colony. Drawings and graphics 1895 - 1906" will be configured and contextualised in the spaces of the National Art Museum in Timisoara by curators Andreea Foanene and Teodora Talhos.

"Because her work is still too little known in Romania, this exhibition wants to raise the visibility of her and Worpswede's artists here. At the same time, the incredible timeliness of this artist, who defied the norms of the time, showing an honest perspective on femininity and demonstrating a particular determination in a patriarchal society, should be emphasised, full of constraints - a theme that remains just as topical 120 years later," says Teodora Talhos, coordinator of the Timisoara regional office of the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (IFA) and co-curator of the exhibition.

The exhibition "Paula Modersohn-Becker and the Worpswede artists' colony" is organised by the IFA in collaboration with the MNArT and the German Cultural Centre in Timisoara. AGERPRES (RO - author: Otilia Halunga, editor: Karina Olteanu; EN - author: Adina Panaitescu, editor: Cristina Zaharia)