Customer Reviews

Kathe Kollwitz: Woman and Artist

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This book tells the story of Kathe, the woman. It's remarkable & haunts you for years after. Several of her sketches are included as well, but more of her art is all that could make this book better!!

kearns' book is a very readable biography of an amazing artist, revealing Kollwitz's artistic development, her philosophy, even a glimpse into her emotional life. It is a fascinating story, especially the chance to see the struggle of women in the art world and life in post WWI and Nazi Germany.

This book is everything I was hoping it would be. It is a dynamic addition to my art library. More people should know of this voice out of the past. The expressive sculpture and drawing are an eloquent expression of the pain that words cannot say.

The spare, straightforward style Martha Kearns employs in this biography matches well the character of Kathe Kollwitz. To a great degree Kearns allows her subject to tell her own story, by inserting excerpts from her journals and letters. This combination of narration and quotation very effectively presents an emerging image of a woman whose plain, unassuming exterior covered an interior suffused with an exceptional intelligence and strength of character.

Kollwitz' artistic nature was very sensitive to the constant struggles of working-class people of her time just to feed, clothe and provide shelter for their children and themselves. Women were the most exploited subclass of the exploited proletariat, having no guaranteed rights in that society. The hardships of the working-class, and particularly women with children, provided the inspiration for most of her artistic output.

Initially, her interest in the poor was largely because of the artistic inspiration they provided. She regarded the middle and upper classes of society as being totally superficial and uninteresting, and felt no inclination to portray them. But the plight of the lower classes, with the ever present dramas of life-or-death, hardship, and sacrifice presented her with a stark and powerful reality which she strove to capture artistically all through her life.

As Kathe Kollwitz took on more of the responsibilities of a woman, becoming a wife and mother as well as an artist, she began to empathize with poor women more because of the bond of common experience. Even though her position, as a doctor's wife, was not so dire as that of working-class women, women of all classes suffered from discrimination, socially and professionally. Seeing her husband's patients day by day, who were mostly poor women, also kept her well aware of this side of life.

Her art reflected her strong social awareness and conscience and became a concentrated effort to portray the defiance of the human spirit against the oppression of the ruling classes. But there was another enemy of the people, aside from the aristocratic and wealthy elite, with whom poor women were engaged in a constant bitter and intimate struggle. That enemy was Death, who was tirelessly engaged in trying to snatch their children away from them through sickness or starvation.

Though Kollwitz appreciated nature as well as music and literature and had her happy times, these more pleasant aspects of life made no appeal to her artistic talents. Thus her legacy is very stark, though it possesses an austere and somber beauty. She was not a joiner, but supported through her art and in other ways the causes of the oppressed of society, especially poor women.

Kollwitz endured many sorrows, including the loss of loved ones to the world wars. In her old age she was subjected to persecution by the insane regime of Hitler. Through it all she exhibited a strength of character, sense of responsibility, and an attitude of defiance against injustice which was truly remarkable and admirable.

I am not one who normally finds myself drawn to activist causes, but I found myself in solid sympathy with Kollwitz as she tried to raise the consciousness of society to an awareness of the extremities of suffering of its exploited masses. I was very moved by her courage and humanity. Her story makes me aware we benefit today from the past efforts of people such as her.

Prospective buyers should be aware that this book is primarily a biography. There are only a few representative samples of her artwork contained therein. The text makes several references to works that aren't pictured.