Paula Modersohn-Becker

“Masterful. Diane Radycki provides a persuasive and revelatory argument for the title of her book pronouncing Paula Modersohn-Becker as “The First Modern Woman Artist.” There is no book I know of that has as keen a cutting edge into the artist’s motivations while at the same time placing her convincingly as an important early 20th-century “modern” woman artist. Her short life and growing posthumous fame are brilliantly juxtaposed.”--Alessandra Comini

~Alessandra Comini

“Diane Radycki's Paula Modersohn-Becker … brings Modersohn-Becker more fully to life, adding a darker tone to the relentlessly cheerful letters she sent home to worried parents. And the paintings and sketches are all beautifully reproduced, introducing us all to this important and beautiful painter.” —Bookslut

~Bookslut

“This book elegantly reveals its subject’s life and work; recommended for anyone interested in German Expressionism and women artists.”—Library Journal, starred review

~ Library Journal

“Radycki's text is an incisive document that will speak to a range of audiences: art historians, feminists, artists, and those looking to the narrative of a creative woman—to help contemplate and forge their own future paths.”–Huffington Post ~Huffington Post

“Radycki makes a convincing case for seeing Paula Modersohn-Becker as the first modern woman artist. . . . Readers of this monograph therefore should be anyone interested in modern art, women artists, the profoundly new art of Modersohn-Becker, and the heady ferment of the times in which she lived and worked. . . .”–Art New England ~Art New England

“The most complete biography available in English. . . . Radycki presents a robust art-historical case that her story is 'the missing piece in the history of twentieth-century modernism.'”–Open Letters Monthly

~Open Letters Monthly