Modern   Art

The Kunsthalle collection documents the importance of the Worpswede artists’ colony to the cultural identity of Bremen through outstanding paintings by Fritz Mackensen, Otto Modersohn, Hans am Ende, and Heinrich Vogeler and by the many paintings and drawings by Paula Modersohn-Becker that span her entire career.
The painter Edvard Munch had a major influence on Expressionist art. His major work The Child and Death at the Kunsthalle Bremen stands in contrast to important works by the artist association Die Brücke (The Bridge) consisting of Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein, and Otto Mueller as well as those by the Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) group around Franz Marc, August Macke, and Paul Klee. Expressionist sculptures are prominently represented by key pieces by Ernst Barlach and Wilhelm Lehmbruck among others. A gallery has been dedicated to Max Beckmann, in which his artistic development can be followed from his early work to his late paintings and sculptures. These holdings are supplemented by the nearly complete collection of Beckmann’s printed oeuvre in the Department of Prints and Drawings. The Cubist and Surrealist movements in France are presented by paintings and sculptures by Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, André Derain, Juan Gris, and André Masson.