Word: kollwitz
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Otto Dix, in his series of etchings "The War," (Der Krieg), transcends his subject's initial impact and there-by penetrates it. War's waste, fatigue and death become something mystical, even poetic. The starkness of his black-and-white tones produce an awareness far more effective than Kathe Kollwitz's unbounded sentimentality or Ernst Barlach's heavy-handed portrayal of heavy-handed destruction. And the transcendence involved is not emotional but aesthetic...
...Kollwitz's mounrful cries of "Bread," "Unemployed" or "Killed in Action" cease to have meaning. The same brooding line is repeated again and again only to appear arbitrary, in expression of similarly histrionics. Beckmann creates and maintains his impact with far greatr lucidity. "The People, Cafe" and "Society, 1915," coherently relate a tale of human confusion and shock, a state of mind which, fortunately, does not engulf the artist despite his intensity of conviction...
During World War I Kaethe Kollwitz lost her eldest son, Peter. This tragedy is carved into her self portrait. In the years that followed she devoted herself in every way possible to ending the feelings of over-ripe nationalism and aggressiveness that had torn her country and sent her son to an early death. Though she repudiated her son's nationalistic philosophy she loved him deeply, and we may gather that he was the inspiration for much of her work if not for the famous Death series done later in her life. As she wrote in 1916 "Made a drawing...
Unlike many modern women artists Kollwitz did not renounce her role as a woman or attempt to replace the responsibilities of a family with art. Rather she accepted her role, using and exploring it for the enrichment of her art. The bisexuality that she felt to be in every artist is reflected in her work by her manly style and womanly sensitivity. The brotherhood of man, sorrow over death, the cruelty of war, care of the sick--these great humanitarian sentiments were the themes of her work. She wasn't mawkish: her work is grim and reminiscent of Goya...
...huddling together of figures conveys in almost primitive fashion our need for one another if man is to be saved from fear and hunger. But at the same time man must be alone as well as related. Kollwitz develops this idea in her self portraits...