CAA News Today

The first American anthology of writings on the work of Paula Modersohn-Becker has just been published by Woman’s Art Journal (Fall/Winter 2009) in an issue devoted to the artist.

Modersohn-Becker (1876–1907) was a German painter who worked in styles ranging from Postimpressionism to early Expressionism. Influenced by Cézanne, Gauguin, and van Gogh, she is recognized today for her early feminist imagery.

The two lead articles were originally written for the catalogue of the Modersohn-Becker exhibition that was to have opened at the Neue Galerie in 2009 in New York (postponed): Anne Higonnet (Barnard College, Columbia University), “Making Babies, Painting Bodies: Women, Art, and Paula Modersohn-Becker’s Productivity”; Diane Radycki (Moravian College), “Pictures of Flesh: Modersohn-Becker and the Nude.”

The three following articles were first presented as talks at the 2009 CAA Annual Conference in Los Angeles. The session, chaired by Radycki, was called “Paula Modersohn-Becker: Art, Risk, Fame”:Rainer Stamm (Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum), “Paula Modersohn-Becker and the Body in Art”; Monica Strauss (author of Cruel Banquet: The Life and Loves of Frida Strindberg), “Helen Serger’s Galerie La Boetie: Paula Modersohn-Becker on Madison Avenue”; Michelle Vangen (Graduate Center, City University of New York), “Left and Right: Politics and Images of Motherhood in Weimar Germany.”

Published semiannually—May and November—since 1980, Woman’s Art Journal continues to represent the interests of women and art worldwide. Articles and reviews cover all areas of women in the visual arts, from antiquity to the present day.

Image: Paula Modersohn-Becker, Self-Portrait (Semi-Nude with Amber Necklace and Flowers II), 1906, oil on canvas, 61 x 50 cm (artwork in the public domain)