Kunsthaus Apolda Avantgarde:

Quite early on, Ernst Barlach (1870-1938) and Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) conceived of their artistic work in contradiction to a reality perceived as cold and shaped by materialism. Käthe Kollwitz put her art entirely at the service of social responsibility and against this background created a wealth of social revolutionary works. All her attention is focused on those people who live in the shadow of progress in the poorest conditions and struggle daily for their existence. In realistic and appellative imagery, she indicts a reality that allows such injustices to exist. While the work of Käthe Kollwitz is characterized by a committed worldly perspective and goal oriented towards concrete social conditions, Ernst Barlach can rather be described as a mystic of modernity. His images of human beings bear hardly any individual characteristics. Rather, they symbolically embody the basic states of human existence and can be read as an expression of spiritual orientation towards another, a better world.

With over 100 exhibits, the exhibition not only offers a retrospective view of the complete works of both artists in a historical context, but also reflects their world views into the present. Both Barlach and Kollwitz wanted to go beyond the boundaries of existence in their works. The current debates about social responsibility, poverty and wealth, empathy and commitment to peace are suspended in them, as is man's search for meaning in a global present shaken by crises. The dialogical conception of the exhibitions connects the work of Ernst Barlach and Käthe Kollwitz, shows their significance for the present and participates in a critical discourse on concepts such as growth and progress.