Prints and Drawings of Käthe Kollwitz

Käthe Kollwitz, Carl Zigrosser

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486132211
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Artist Monographs

"The Weavers, " a landmark of class-conscious art, which depicts, in a series of prints, the plight of the worker and his age-long struggle to better his lot. "Death as a Friend, " showing a man greeting his death as an old friend, with a hysterical mixture of joy and terror. "The People, " in which a mother shields her offspring from phantoms of hate, poverty, and ignorance — and symbolizes woman as creator, begetter of the human race, link between past and future.
These works represent the recurrent themes which most characterize the work of Käthe Kollwitz: social consciousness and a sense of the suffering of mankind, an urge to voice the basic maternal attitude, and a preoccupation with death. She has been called a propagandist, a crusader, yet her art is essentially apolitical. Her concern was not with partisan causes, but rather with universal rights.
Fundamentally a dramatic artist, Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) brought to each of her works an uncanny ability to evoke human emotions through subtle gestures and facial expressions. The reactions of her characters were psychologically true primarily because she tested them on herself.
The present collection contains 83 of Mrs. Kollwitz's finest works, including the last great print cycles: "The Weavers" of 1898; "The Peasant War" of 1908; "War" of 1925; and "Death" of 1935. These selections provide a full panorama of Mrs. Kollwitz's development as a master of the graphic techniques of etching, woodcutting and lithography. Over 69 of the illustrations have been rephotographed from the original works specially for this edition, and new techniques in photolithography and a larger format have resulted in reproductions that are as close as possible to the prints and drawings themselves.

Table of Contents

DOVER BOOKS ON FINE ART
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface to the Dover Edition
Introduction
Bibliography

1. Greeting

2. Self Portrait at Table, 1893

3. Poverty

4. Death

5. Conspiracy

6. March of the Weavers

7. Riot

8. The End

9. Uprising

10. La Carmagnole

11. Woman with Folded Hands

12. Woman with Blue Shawl

13. The Downtrodden

14. Mother with Dead Child

15. Plowing

16. Raped

17. Sharpening the Scythe

18. Seizing Arms

19. Outbreak

20. After the Battle

21. The Prisoners

22. Woman and Death

23. Woman and Death

24. Tavern in Hamburg

25. Run Over

26. Mother with Child in Arms

27. Mother with Child in Arms

28. The Mothers

29. Karl Liebknecht Memorial

30. Deat...

Table of contents

• DOVER BOOKS ON FINE ART
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface to the Dover Edition
• Introduction
• Bibliography
• Table of Contents