Paula Modersohn-Becker and the Visceral Body

While widely known in Germany, the Royal Academy’s ‘Making Modernism’ exhibition in 2022 presented a rare opportunity to see a brilliant but small display of her work.  

This talk will put into context how, in the early 1900s, Modersohn-Becker spent less than a decade creating a completely unique approach to painting that defied category.

Spanning evocative themes of landscape, portraiture, adolescence, self-portraits, and motherhood, her vibrant work predated German Expressionism, leaving the conventional trends of her time, like the Worpswede Artist Colony, in the dust.

Discover more about her life and why her groundbreaking art still resonates with a visceral energy for viewers today.

Michael Ajerman is an American artist who focuses on colour in painting and drawing. He has consistently exhibited internationally, recently with the Isabel Sullivan Gallery, New York and SQFT: SPACE Gallery, London. Currently he is exhibiting in the Courtauld Institute’s East Wing Biennial exhibition. 

In 2003, he completed his Masters Degree at the Slade School of Art, receiving the British Institute Award from the Royal Academy the same year. In 2018 he was awarded UCLA’s Kitaj Research Fellowship.  He recently contributed writing to the new monograph on Euan Uglow titled, 'The Uglow Papers' by Andrew Lambirth.  Over the past few years he has lectured on individual artists at several universities.  This coming autumn he will be lecturing on painter, Paula Modersohn Becker at JW3. 

www.michaelajerman.com/