Exhibition! Worpsweder Kunsthalle 23.03.2025 - 15.06.2025 Rediscovered - Hanna Ahrens
A flea market find by Frank Fenken in October 2022 adds another valuable chapter to the history of the Worpswede artists' colony in terms of art history. The works and biography of Worpswede artist Hanna Ahrens (born in Bremen in 1903) had been forgotten for decades. Nobody could remember the painter, although she was an integral part of the Worpswede art scene for over 25 years with her outstanding works and her many social contacts with Worpswede artists in the period between 1931 and 1956.
Months of intensive research in archives (Bremen State Archives, Stade State Archives, Bremen University, Bremen Address Book, Lilienthal Local History Association, Worpswede Local Archives) and finally contact with her son, Michael Ahrens (died 24.12.2023), who contacted Frank Fenken after the publication of a newspaper article in the Wümme-Zeitung, enable the author to tell the life of Hanna Ahrens.
He drew the attention of the Worpswede Kunsthalle to Hanna Ahren's works and her dramatic life in Worpswede. He finally succeeded in convincing them of the idea of an exhibition about the painter. Fenken provided scientific research results and research on Hanna Ahrens, which were exclusively attributable to him, to accompany the exhibition. With a few exceptions, he provided the majority of the exhibits (paintings, drawings, sculptures, sketches, photographs, letters and documents) on loan.
The artist certainly deserves a place in the history of Worpswede artists.
In order to honor Hanna Ahrens, who was persecuted by the National Socialists (1937 incapacitation, 1943 threatened child removal and imprisonment) as a human being and to save her work from oblivion, her story is told here.
Special thanks go to Michael Ahrens and his wife Gudrun, who spent many hours telling the author about the artist's life and exciting stories from Worpswede. Numerous letters, photographs, documents and works provided by the family complemented his extensive research.
In the gallery you will find an excerpt of the recovered works.
