Museum

Statens Museum for Kunst, Kopenhagen:

"Käthe Kollwitz – MENSCH"

November 7, 2024 - February 23, 2025

Humanity above all. Art, compassion, and protest go hand in hand in the work of Käthe Kollwitz – one of the most groundbreaking artists of the 20th century.

She is known for her vast body of graphic works, where she brings social perspectives to light through a raw and unpolished depiction of the human condition. War, grief, oppression, death, and poverty are recurring themes in her intense and confrontational works, but care, hope, and love are also present.

Kollwitz was professionally active as an artist during the five most turbulent decades in German history: from the 1890s to the early 1940s, as the country moved from the violent upheavals of industrialization through two traumatic world wars. She used her art as a voice for those who suffered most during these developments and were the most powerless.

With this exhibition, SMK presents the full scope of Käthe Kollwitz’s artistry – as a graphic artist, draughtswoman, and sculptor – offering a nuanced insight into her artistic works and their social, political, and historical foundations.

Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) was born in Königsberg in East Prussia and studied painting at two German Academies for Women Artists – first in Berlin, then in Munich. She married Karl Kollwitz, a doctor working with the poor, and had two sons. She lost her youngest son during the First World War, where he volunteered to join the German army and was killed in battle.

In 1919, she was the first woman ever to become a full member of the Prussian Art Academy and was made a professor. Later, the Nazi regime forced her to resign from her position, and in 1936 she was banned from exhibiting. However, she continued her practice as a graphic artist, draughtswoman and sculptor until her death, which came a few weeks before the end of the Second World War in 1945.

In present-day Germany she ranks among the most famous figures of art and culture and has several squares and streets named after her. In recent years, her work has been shown at major exhibitions at leading venues such as MoMA in New York and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. Käthe Kollwitz – MENSCHis the first solo show with Kollwitz ever presented at a Danish museum.

Käthe Kollwitz, Drei Köpfe: Mann, Frau und Kind

lithograph on paper
Image: 11.9 × 15.5 cm | 4 5/8 × 6 1/8 in
Sheet: 37.2 × 24.9 cm | 14 5/8 × 9 3/4 in
€7,500.00

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