Käthe Kollwitz

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Intro

Käthe Kollwitz was a German print maker closely associated with Expressionism. Her artwork showed the sadness

of hunger, poverty, and war.

Expressionism

Expressionism was an art movement that distorted images to communicate a feeling, a mood, or an idea.

The Scream by Edvard Munch, seen here, is a famous example.

Print-Making

Printmaking is an art form in which artists draw onto a strong surface like wood or metal then press that drawing onto paper to create many prints of the same drawing.

Käthe Schmidt was born

in Prussia in 1867.

She suffered from anxiety, visual distortions, and migraine headaches.

She learned to draw by copying plaster sculptures.

Encouraged by her father, she drew the working people that she met in his office.

Childhood

She attended the Women’s Art School in Munich. There she learned that she was not a painter, but a draftsman.

Draftsman

A draftsman is an artist

who excels at drawing.

The artist used her art to speak up for people who didn’t have power. She drew working people in a way that no one else saw them.

The Weavers

Her first masterpieces showed the sadness and courage of professional weavers.

Kollwitz’s Weavers series was nominated for a gold medal but the King of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II, objected. “A medal for a woman,” he said, “that would really be going too far.”

Peasants

War

Kollwitz's second major series was about the German Peasants’ War. Peasants, who were treated as slaves, revolted against the lords who mistreated them.

Runover

Kollwitz was impressed by younger artists. Expressionist and Bauhaus artists inspired her to simplify her own work. Runover (seen here) is an example of their influence.

Grieving Parents

Kollwitz’s youngest son died in battle during World War I. His death sent the artist into a depression. She spent 18 years creating a memorial to her son and other fallen soldiers. The sculpture, Grieving Parents, was placed near her son’s grave.

Pacifist

Posters

Between the two world wars, Kollwitz used her art to promote peace. In 1924, she finished her three most famous posters: Germany’s Children Starving, Bread, and Never Again War. When even more men were called to war, she published the following statement: “There has been enough of dying! Let not another man fall!”

Kollwitz was elected to become a professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts. She was the first woman to receive that honor.

In 1928, she became director of the Master Class for Graphic Arts at the Berlin Academy.

The Nazis stripped her of that title.

Academy

Professor

The Nazi Party took power in 1933.

The fascists removed Kollwitz from the faculty of her school. They removed her artwork from museums. They banned her from showing new artwork. And they stole her art for their own propaganda.

Banned

70th Birthday

In 1936, the Nazi Gestapo threatened Kollwitz with deportation to a concentration camp. By that time though, the artist was internationally famous. So her disappearance would have been suspicious.

On her 70th birthday, she “received over 150 telegrams from leading personalities in the art world” including offers to protect her in the United States.

She stayed in Germany to defend her family.

Käthe Kollwitz was evacuated to Berlin in 1943. Her home was bombed. Much of her artwork was destroyed or lost. She lived as a guest of the Prince of Saxony until her death, 16 days before the end of World War II.

Death

Her final series was titled Death.

The lithographs were etched into eight stones.

Legacy

Kollwitz made at least 275 prints during her lifetime.

Four museums are dedicated entirely to her art.

More than 40 German schools are named after the artist.

Her sculpture here serves as a monument

to the “Victims of War and Tyranny.”

Bonus! In 2017, Google honored Käthe Kollwitz’s

150th birthday with this Google Doodle.

The caption read: “Käthe Kollwitz is considered one of the most important artists of the modern age. ... Even though her work is diverse in technique, one thing is consistent: it is filled with emotion and portrays universal human experiences."

Google

Doodle