Portrait of the Artist Kathe Kollwitz

More about the book

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) developed a mastery of graphic art which quickly established her reputation in Germany, then further afield as her influence spread internationally after the First World War. Establishing herself in an art world dominated by men, Kollwitz developed a vision centred on women and the working class. 'Portrait of the Artist' looks at her work through the exploration of self-portraits and portraits of working women, her two great series concerned with social injustice: Ein Weberaufstand (A Weavers' Revolt, 1897) and Bauernkrieg (Peasants' War, 1908), the ever-present imagery of death, especially a mother's grief, and finally the theme of war and remembrance after her younger son, Peter, had been killed at the beginning of the First World War. The exhibition is drawn from the collection of the British Museum and is complemented by a small number of loans from a private owner and The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham.