Bremen, Germany.- The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum is proud to present “Oda Krohg: Painter and Muse in Edvard Munch’s Circle” on view at the museum through February 26th. Oda Krohg was born Othilia Pauline Christine Lasson in 1860 in Åsgårdstrand and despit having little formal art education, she quickly absorbed the knowledge of the artistic environment she was a part of. Her first years as an artist are seen as an example of new romantic painting. Her later portrait works make another, more robust impression. Oda was a central figure in the anti-culture movement of the Christiania Bohemians (“Kristiania-bohemen”) in the 1880s and 1890s. In Edvard Munch’s etching “kafeinteriør” (1893), Oda is surrounded by bohemians and people close to them including Munch, Christian Krohg, Jappe Nilssen, Hans Jæger, Gunnar Heiberg and Jørgen Engelhardt. Oda is said to have had affairs with all of these men apart from Munch.
Above all though, Oda Krohg was a gifted avant-garde painter, her atmospheric, impressionist paintings influenced by the artistic trends of the time. In Scandinavia, Oda Krohg is widely recognised as one of the most significant artists of the early 20th century. The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum’s exhibit is on view concurrent with the Munch exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bremen, allowing visitors to see these contemporary Norwegian artists. The exhibittion contains 21 of her paintings and a drawing alongside 12 by Edvard Munch, mostly portraits, these works illustrate the lifestyle of the members of the “Kristiania bohemians”. By 1900 Krohg was one of the artists in the Bohemian scene in Christiania (modern-day Oslo) and had become known as the “true bohemian princess” as the poet Hans Jæger named her (and her 2nd husband, Christian Krohg, painted her portrait).
Oda Krohg’s evocative images are evidence of her intense involvement with the impressionism. Her debut as an artist came in 1886 at the Salon d’Automne with the pastel “Kristianiafjord (Japanese lantern)”. It shows a young woman sitting in a doorway, deep in thought and gazing at a seascape. The scenery is wrapped in the special light from a Japanese paper lantern. This image is regarded as a precursor for Edvard Munch’s famous summer night pictures. After spending some time in Berlin, Oda Krohg moved to Paris in 1897 with her then husband Gunnar Heiberg, who had a teaching position at the Académie Colarossi. Within a short time she became acquainted with some of the leading artists in the city, including Henri Matisse. In 1903 she showed at the Salon de Paris, and a year later held her first exhibition at the Salon d’Automne, where she continued to be regularly involved until 1909. In these later years, portrait painting became the center of her work. Krohg returned to oslo in 1911 and died there in 1935.
The picturesque winding cooper street in the heart of the Hanseatic city of Bremen enjoys world famous for its because of its rich decoration brick architecture. The art collections Böttcherstraße form the architectural and cultural highlight of this unique ensemble. They include the Museum in the Roselius House, a mansion of the 16th Altbremer Century, with works from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, and the Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, a fantastic construction of the sculptor, craftsman and architect Bernhard Hoetger. It is one of the finest examples of expressionist architecture in Germany. The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen Böttcherstraße was the world’s first museum was dedicated to one artist and presents permanent masterpieces by its namesake. At the same time the building with its unique and moving style is a masterpiece of expressionist architecture in Germany. The artist Bernhard Hoetger (1874-1949), commissioned the design of the building in which his collection of works by Paula Modersohn-Becker should be accommodated. On 2 June 1927 the house was opened by the client. Through acquisitions and loans to the Paula Modersohn-Becker Foundation, the collection has expanded to show the full range and importance of this artist to the beginnings of modernity. The museum also houses the largest collection of sculptures, paintings and drawings by its architect Bernhard Hoetger. The exhibition rooms are used for special exhibitions, mostly of works by modern masters. Paula Modersohn-Becker was born in Dresden in 1876, but spent a large part of her childhood in Bremen. Deciding at a young age to become a painter, she studied at a private painting and drawing school in Berlin, before moving to Worpswede in 1898 to study with the figure painters Fritz Mackensen and Heinrich Vogeler. The main subjects were the life of the farmers and the northern German landscape. At this time she began close friendships with the sculptor Clara Westhoff (1875–1954) and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). She also fell in love during this period, and in 1901 she married a fellow Worpswede painter, Otto Modersohn. Between 1900 and 1907, Paula made several extended trips to Paris for artistic purposes and took some courses at the École des Beaux-Arts. She visited contemporary exhibitions often, and was particularly intrigued with the work of Paul Cézanne. Other post impressionists were especially influential, including Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Fauve influences may also appear in such works as “Poorhouse Woman with a Glass Bottle”. The influence by the work of French painter, Jean-François Millet, who was widely admired among the artists in the Worpswede group, may be seen in such pieces as her 1900 Peat Cutters. In her last trip to Paris in 1906, she produced a body of paintings from which she felt very great excitement and satisfaction. During this period of painting, she produced her initial nude self-portraits (something surely unprecedented by a female painter) and portraits of friends such as Rainer Maria Rilke and Werner Sombart. Some critics consider this period of her art production to be the strongest and most compelling. Paula Modersohn-Becker died suddenly in Worpswede on November 20 from an embolism. Visit the museum’s website at … http://www.pmbm.de