In the hands of Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945), art was social action. Born in Königsberg, she began drawing as a child. Encouraged by her father, she began taking lessons, eventually enrolling in a women's art school in Berlin. She became a printmaker, painter, and sculptor, creating works informed by her keen awareness of human struggle: in her art, we find poverty, revolution, suffering, and loss. A pacifist and socialist, her vision encompassed the practical conditions of work and war, but also their psychological effects, their traumas.
Käthe Kollwitz: Voice of the People is the second part of an AGO exhibit featuring the artist’s prints, drawings, and sculptures. All the pieces on display were donated by Toronto's Brian McCrindle, a pediatric cardiologist at the Hospital for Sick Children. Introduced to Kollwitz through an art-history course, he was struck by the compassion evident in her work and began collecting it. But he felt it needed to reach a wider audience, so in 2015, he gifted 170 pieces to the AGO — which now boasts one of the most significant collections of her work outside of Germany.
Käthe Kollwitz: Voice of the People is on exhibit at the AGO until March 3, 2019.
Related Videos
View video transcript
View video transcript