Kathe Kollwitz

Kathe Kollwitz is an artist who specialized in charcoal and lithography. She was born to progressive parents which meant that she was unusually educated for a woman of her time. Her father recognizes her talent for art, and she had the opportunity to take lessons from prominent artists in her teenage years, before eventually going to art school in her early 20s. She marries a man that promises to take on responsibilities at home so that Kathe doesn't have to give up her dreams of being an artist. They move to Berlin and have 2 sons together. Her art is very focused on the working class and giving a voice to those who can't speak for themselves. This is also seen in the way that she depicts the lives of women. There are a lot of repeating themes of mothers and children throughout her artwork. Kathe said that her art informed her motherhood, and her motherhood informed her art, which I think is really cool. There are also a lot of pacifist themes throughout her artwork. She lost her son in WW1, and it throws her into a depression. There is a lot of grief in so much of her artwork, and it really is quite gutting.

I think that Kathe Kollwitz provided really important commentary on the world around her and gave many viewpoints that aren't often shown throughout history. Women's lives and the way that they interact have often been ignored by artists in favor of either idolizing them and turning them into allegories, or ignoring them altogether. However, Kathe Kollwitz does the opposite. One of her pieces that I loved shows two women chatting while one holds a child. Such a simple scene, but to her (and to a lot of us as women) it was something worth making art. Her work also tackles a lot of important subject matter that has to do with war, poverty, and social class. She was very active in her beliefs of socialism and pacifism, and her art often reflects those ideologies. In this way she was able to inform people who viewed her art about important issues in the world.

In my opinion, Kathe Kollwitz is commemorated well, which makes me very happy to say! She is memorialized in a lot of ways throughout Germany. We had the opportunity to visit a museum that was dedicated to her and her artwork, which was absolutely wonderful. It talks about her life and her journey as an artist which meant that we were able to learn so much about her! She has a few sculptures throughout Germany from my understanding, one of which is a sculpture of a mother protecting her children (very on brand for her life and artwork!). The plaza in Berlin where her and her husband lived and worked is named after her, and she is one of the most well known women artists in history. She is very beloved all around the world, and she very much deserves it.

Thank you MaryAnn for the lecture where I got most of my info! (I also gathered information from the museum)

The pictures are of me with a couple of my favorite pieces from Kathe Kollwitz!