"It is spring, My child" - Kollwitz diary 1915.4.11

(Half a year ago today, Karl saw you for the last time and half a year ago tomorrow, I saw you for the last time. You said: »I will come back« I took the withered leaves from your bed and covered things belonging to you with a cloth. On the white sheet is some white birch. [...] By your bed ... It is spring, My child. - from Kollwitz’ diary 1915.4.11

The title of this exhibition traces back to the personal diary of the german female graphic artist Käthe Kollwitz. On April 11. 1915, she wrote a soundless exclamation of maternal sadness and sorrow for her youngest son. Peter died in 1914 during World War I. This unexpected tragedy had not only enormously affected her personal life, but also changed her art substantially, which is one of the main subjects of this exhibition. In western art history, very few artists have devoted their artistic careers exclusively to printmaking. Käthe Kollwitz, whose primary means of expression was printmaking, stands out as a powerful and compelling figure in the development of early 20th century German art. Her work visually integrates social, emotional, ethical and political issues, motivated by her experience of social injustice under the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II and during World War I. In this era of political unrest, Kollwitz found printmaking the most acceptable medium for transmitting her message to a broad public venue. As a venerable populist medium, graphics were accessible to the impoverished working class, enabling Kollwitz to serve all sectors of society through her art. The implicit understanding between the artist and the populace encouraged her to shape her message through this most democratic of all art forms. Both her life and her pictorial language were devoted to an investigation of the human condition, to a penetration of the spiritual and physical plight of the underclass. In her prolific career she produced over 270 etchings, woodcuts and lithographs, which speak to our times maternal voice alike, as they did to her own.

This exhibition takes a new look at the graphic works of Käthe Kollwitz in respect to her influence on the development of Chinese graphic art, as well as her traces in Chinese contemporary art, which have been strongly engraved onto the creative spirit of Chinese artists ever since her acceptance and widespread popularity in China in the early 1930‘s through the respected literate Lu Xun.

Accordingly, the exhibition consists of three parts: partpartpartpart oneoneoneone focuses exclusively on the most representative works of Käthe Kollwitz, including the 3 cycles (Weavers’revolt, Peasant War, and War), self-portraits, works with the mother-child motif, and death motif, which plays a significant role in her life as a female artist. The bronze sculpture, Mother with two children, with its remarkable size in comparison to her small-scale statuettes takes its places in the middle of the main hall. On the one hand, it arouses astonishment of the visitors with the delicate and temperate simplicity in its form and shape and, on the other hand, dominates the exihibition spaces with its expressive force.The second and third part of the exhibition refer to the influence of Käthe Kollwitz on Chinese graphic art and Chinese contemporary art with her artistic skills and themes.
The second part includes graphics which originated beween 1930 and 1950.

The third part of the exhibition, shows Käthe Kollwitz’s influence on Chinese contemporary art, and provided the most ponderous challenge in finding artists and works from Chinese contemporary art in which the influence of Käthe Kollwitz is clearly present. Even though her importance and influence on Chinese contemporary art has slightly paled in comparison to the works showed in the second part of the exhibition, prints and paintings exhibited in the third part provide inevitable evidence to the timelessness of ongoing traces of Kollwitz‘s master pieces in new Chinese art.

OpeningCeremony
Special Lecture by Dr.Gudrun Fritsch, Kathe-Kollwitz Museum in Berlin, Germany A catalogue wil be published on the occasion of this exhibition. You can meet and interview the director of Kollwitz Museum Berlin in Beijing by appointment between Mar. 5 to 7.