The Art-Making Practice of Kathe Kollwitz

1. A range of social, environmental and political circumstances influenced much of the art that Kollwitz produced. This is evident from an early age where the academic teachings from her grandfather affected her views on religion and socialism that was presented in the way that she viewed members of the working class. This is furthered with the images Kollwitz saw of the labour class that her father campaigned for, in which many of her artworks depict exceedingly empathetic and mournful images of their experiences.
 

2. Kollwitz’s role as an artist is to force the audience to evaluate the harsh reality of poverty and the inability to sustain a family, the loss of life (both physically and emotionally) and the common hardships that the lower class endures. Kollwitz creates pieces through her perspectives of one who can afford both life’s necessities and luxuries and displays a comparison between two vast social differences. In turn, a common theme through her art making practices are universal tones of motherhood, despair over loss and sudden confrontation at life’s developments.

Kollwitz has been cited as having one of the most ‘strong and truthful depictions of the lifestyles and struggles of Germany’s destitute’.

3. Aside from social perceptions, direct influences to Kollwitz’s works refer to her theatrical interests.

Gehart Hauptmann’s play, ‘The Weavers’, provided her with inspiration of the oppression of the Silesian weavers in Langembielau and their failed revolt in 1842. Following this, the artist produced a series of etchings that illustrated The Weavers theme of Poverty, Death and Conspiracy, and finally, the March of the Weavers, Riot and The End. These works were a ‘naturalistic expression of the worker’s misery, hope, courage and doom’.

A secondary Hauptmann drama, ‘Florian Geyer’, caused Kollwitz to complete a second cycle of work called the ‘Peasant War’ (1902-1908). This work depicted the revolution that took place in Southern Germany, during the Reformation of 1525, where slaves rebelled against the feudal lords and the Church. This work consisted of pieces named Plowing, Raped, Sharpening the Scythe, Arming in the Vault, Outbreak, After the Battle and The Prisoners.

4. Kollwitz’s 1905 artwork, ‘Woman with Dead Child’, produce clear evidence of the artist’s common art practices. This work was created using the etching technique, through an engraving of an original image and then added colouring shades of various monotones- including, greys, whites and blacks.

Kollwitz uses aggressive and taut lines to bring passionate energy to the surface of the artwork, with the assistance of shape and shade. The lines share complexity of their various sizes and carvings, yet they allow the objects in the image to become fluent amongst each other. Kollwitz’s use of lines creating a three-dimensional look at the piece, present various tones of her work, such as sorrow.

5. Kollwitz has often expressed her influences of the expressionist and Bauhaus movements, through out various elements of her work, particularly emphasised in Runover (1910) and Self-Portrait (1923). Corresponding with her other works, these contain a connecting Gothic theme produced by a high level of technical difficulty from their vast sizes and intricate command of light and shadow. In particularly, Kollwitz has been cited has having ‘the highest achievements of any etcher to date’.