Curators’ Tour Of Käthe Kollwitz Exhibit At MOMA

Club members joined curators Starr Figura and Maggie Hire to tour this beautifully conceived exhibition that not only takes one through the artist’s chronology, but also explores her creative process. The show includes some 110 works of art, including one of Kollwitz’s etched plates, prints, drawings, and sculptures, and is the first major show focused on the artist in the U.S. since 1992.

Figura said that when she speaks to groups about Kollwitz, only about half the audience is familiar with the artist’s work, and she hopes this exhibition will introduce more people in the U.S. to her work, much of which is focused on social justice. Her work gives voice to the potential of women in a way not done before.  The exhibition is organized chronologically but also examines the artist’s creative process. It took about two years to put together, although the idea for the show predated the pandemic; works were loaned by more than 30 collections in the United States and Europe.  Several self-portraits open the show and provide a recurring theme throughout the artist’s career. With these, she positions herself in the lineage of great graphic artists, including Dürer, Rembrandt and Goya. Kollwitz attended women’s art schools in Munich and Berlin (at the time, women were barred from the main academies) where she studied painting, but she soon gave it up for drawing and printmaking, which were more conducive to her message. Many of the works emphasize hands, which carry much meaning, especially in terms of their role in labor and nurture.

Kollwitz became very well-known after the war. Women got the vote in 1918 in Germany. Kollwitz became the first woman professor at the Prussian Art Academy in the inter-war period. She also became much more widely known due to her work making posters focusing on the humanitarian causes growing out of the war—these were seen by a broad public.