Born this day in 1867 in what is now Kaliningrad, Russia (Königsberg in Prussia at the time), the great artist Käthe Kollwitz is the subject of a retrospective at MOMA in New York that traces her development over several decades, from the 1890s through the 1930s — a period with all-too-familiar resonances to our current moment.
From the brilliant Philip Kennicott’s review: “As other artists working in Germany during the same period steeled themselves with irony and satire, rendering the worst of the world in lurid shapes and hues, Kollwitz stared it down without flinching… She committed a number of sins against artistic orthodoxy, making art for a large public, making art that was figurative rather than abstract, making art focused on the emotional lives of women and narratives of motherhood and loss.”
Here’s an appreciation (in German) from SWR Kultur.
Filed under: art exhibition, art history
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 