The forgotten artist Hanna Ahrens was rediscovered thanks to a flea market find. Numerous paintings and drawings have been tracked down in recent years. Through contact with descendants, private engagement and scientific research parts of the artist’s life and work have been brought to light.

The Worpswede Kunsthalle has long been in possession of a still life by Hanna Ahrens, but little was known about the artist herself. However, this fact alone was not the reason for the exhibition. For many decades, one of the main focuses of the museum's exhibition activities has been to present female artists and to discover unknown ones.

Hanna Ahrens was an artist whose subjects include still lifes, portraits and genre scenes. During her early creative period in the 1920s, while she was studying in Bremen, Berlin, Paris and Munich, she created a series of nude drawings in which she captured the figures in an expressive and individual way. In her portraits, on the other hand, she approaches the New Objectivity, and later, in particular, the naturalistic expression of her predecessors and contemporaries.

Two decisive events characterise her time in Worpswede: in 1937 she was accused of ›drunkenness‹ and even declared legally incompetent. In 1943, she gave birth to a son, unmarried, whose father was a prisoner of war. At the time, this was considered a socially unacceptable relationship. Only because the artist Bernhard Huys took over paternity, she escaped child abduction and imprisonment.

Although the artist lived in Worpswede for over 20 years, she has been forgotten. The exhibition provides an insight into her work and her life story. However, there are gaps that need to be filled through further research.