DRESDEN.- The Albertinum of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden is presenting an ambitious exhibition that brings together, for the first time, two of the most compelling artistic figures of the early modern era: Paula Modersohn-Becker and Edvard Munch. Titled “Paula Modersohn-Becker and Edvard Munch. The Big Questions of Life,” the exhibition assembles around 150 works to explore how both artists grappled with the fundamental experiences of human existence. The show coincides with a significant anniversary, marking 150 years since Modersohn-Becker’s birth in Dresden on February 8, 1876.

Through paintings, drawings, prints, and sculpture, the exhibition traces how both artists responded to the profound social and cultural transformations unfolding around 1900. Industrialization, technological advances, and shifting social norms shaped their lives and creative outlooks, yet both remained deeply focused on the individual. Their works examine themes such as birth and death, illness, motherhood, relationships, and the tension between human dignity and vulnerability, revealing a shared concern with the emotional and psychological realities of modern life.

The presentation combines important works from Dresden’s own collections with major international loans, including key pieces from the Munchmuseet in Oslo, the exhibition’s partner institution, as well as contributions from museums, foundations, and private collections worldwide. Many of these works are being shown in Germany for the first time, offering a rare opportunity to experience the artistic dialogue between the two figures in depth.

Modersohn-Becker developed her distinctive, radically simplified visual language during her time in Worpswede and Paris, producing portraits and landscapes that anticipated the emergence of Expressionism. Although her career was cut short by her early death in 1907, her work later came to be recognized as groundbreaking in its emotional directness and formal clarity. Munch, meanwhile, gained prominence in Berlin in the 1890s with works such as Vampire and The Sick Child. Shaped by personal tragedy and early family losses, he transformed intimate experiences of grief, anxiety, and desire into images of striking psychological intensity that continue to resonate today.

While emphasizing the thematic affinities between the two artists, the exhibition also gives each a dedicated space, allowing visitors to encounter their work individually as well as in dialogue. Selected works by contemporaries including Vincent van Gogh, Auguste Rodin, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Otto Modersohn further situate their art within the broader intellectual and artistic currents of the period.

A contemporary participatory component extends the exhibition’s exploration of life’s enduring questions. Through the project Life Letters, visitors are invited to submit personal reflections, which are presented digitally within the galleries and on the SKD’s online platform, alongside video statements from notable figures. Together, these contributions connect historical artistic inquiry with present-day voices, underscoring the continuing relevance of the themes both Modersohn-Becker and Munch pursued.

An illustrated exhibition catalogue edited by Birgit Dalbajewa and Andreas Dehmer has been published by Sandstein Kultur, accompanying the show and providing further scholarly context for this rare and thought-provoking encounter between two pioneers of modern art.