February 8, 2026 marks the 150th anniversary of Paula Modersohn-Becker's birth. The Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum in Bremen, which has the most extensive public collection of her works in the world, is dedicating a major special exhibition entitled Becoming Paula to this anniversary. It sheds light on the artist's life, work and after-effects - and at the same time paints a fascinating portrait of a woman who rewrote art history.

When Paula Modersohn-Becker died in 1907 at the age of just 31, her work was barely known. Today, she is considered a pioneer of modernism, one of the most important German painters of the early 20th century - "Germany's Picasso", as the FAZ once wrote. Her works hang in museums from Paris to New York, her name stands for self-determination, artistic freedom and radical independence.
The anniversary exhibition asks: How did Paula Becker become the artist Paula Modersohn-Becker - and ultimately the cultural symbol "Paula"? In a thematically structured tour, the exhibition reveals the decisive stages of this development: from the early years of study in London and Berlin to the inspiring Worpswede period and the intensive Paris years, in which Paula Modersohn-Becker found her unmistakable pictorial language.
Her famous "Self-Portrait on the 6th Wedding Anniversary" from 1906 - the first self-portrait by a female painter - marks a turning point in art history. But "Becoming Paula" goes far beyond such icons. The exhibition shows rarely seen early works and studies that already reveal the young artist's extraordinary talent. Many of these works come from private collections and are being presented to the public for the first time - a real discovery.

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Self-portrait with red rose, around 1905, Paula Modersohn-Becker Foundation, Bremen, on loan from a private collection © Paula-Modersohn-Becker-Stiftung, Bremen

One chapter is dedicated to Modersohn-Becker's networks and friendships: Letters, portraits and documents shed light on her connections to Otto Modersohn, Rainer Maria Rilke, Heinrich Vogeler and Werner Sombart. Even though she is often regarded as a loner, she was integrated into a dense intellectual and artistic environment - an aspect that is impressively illustrated in the exhibition.
The journey continues to Worpswede, where Modersohn-Becker found the central theme of her oeuvre: the human body. Her nudes, mother-child depictions and portraits are characterized by an unusual directness and emotional depth. They do not show idealized beauties, but people in their elementary dignity - an artistic view that is still modern today.
The late works, the "major works" with which she surrounded herself in Paris, form the emotional highlight of the exhibition. For Paula Modersohn-Becker, these paintings were an expression of inner perfection. "She lived with her paintings", wrote her sister Herma Becker - and indeed, one senses a rare closeness between life and art in these works.
Finally, "Becoming Paula" is dedicated to the history of her reception. Just 20 years after her early death, her works were exhibited in numerous cities, her letters and diaries were published and a museum was dedicated to her in Bremen - the first in the world to be dedicated to a female painter. Today, Paula Modersohn-Becker is not only an established figure in art history, but also a pop-cultural phenomenon. Artists such as Chantal Joffe and Georg Baselitz refer to her; her image shapes exhibitions, films and books.
With around 70 paintings and works on paper, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of the work of this extraordinary artist. Loans from the Paula Modersohn-Becker Foundation, private collections and international museums complement the rich holdings of the Bremen museum.
Becoming Paula is more than a retrospective - it is an invitation to rediscover the emergence of an artist whose courage and modernity still shine today.
February 8 to September 13, 2026
museums-boettcherstrasse.com/museums/paula-modersohn-becker-museum

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Children with lanterns in front of a house, around 1901, on loan from a private collection © Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner Bremen/Berlin

Worpswede Museums
Impulse Paula - An artistic journey of discovery
Paula Modersohn-Becker's expressive painting is celebrated worldwide today. With her way of seeing and painting, shaped by life in the artists' village of Worpswede, she made her mark both artistically and socially. In 2026, the Worpswede museums will explore the question of what art-historical impulses emanate from her life's work and how contemporary art draws inspiration from her (including Inès Longevial, Sibylle Springer, Heike Kati Barath). A feature film will also be released.
February 7 to November 1, 2026
worpswede-museen.de