Kathe Kollwitz

1081 Words3 Pages

“While I drew, and wept along with the terrified children I was drawing, I really felt the burden I am bearing. I felt that I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate.” – Kathe Kollwitz. As the German painter and sculptor, Kathe Kollwitz conveyed in her statement that the art she created held the burden of transfiguration. The fixation of sorrow and hardship that occurred while she sat huddled with the children was the driving force of her drawings. Her realization that art could not only be an escape from the horror happenings in Germany such as the rationing of food and the starving-to-death children at that time was also a way to voice her opinion of change and revolution. It was the quest, in which she enamored in her drawings and it is this feeling that I value from it. I choose this artist because she delineated the various circumstances surrounding the human individual, she took into account perspectives that involved life with its tragedies, and the lives of little angel children. Her drawings and sculptures were prepared to emulate and capture what her eyes had seen while she was in Germany and this is why I had taken a likening to her drawings. The two artworks that I am specifying in this research paper is the drawing labeled “Germany's children starve!” and”Self-Portrait, Hand at the Forehead (Selbstbildnis mit der Hand an der Stirn)”. Furthermore, Kathe Kollwitz lived a very prodigious yet dynamic evocative life and her legacy will be in eternal revere. She was born on July 8, 1867 in Konigsberg of East Prussia. She was born in the mid-late years of the 19th century. Kollwitz had the desire to study art and pursued this ambition in Berlin. She worked under Karl Stauffer-Bern at the sc... ... middle of paper ... ...llows us to retain the full emotional appeal coming from the drawing. This contrast in turns emphasizes the focal point (denoted by the arrow). Works Cited  BrainyQuote. "Kathe Kollwitz Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .  "Germany's Children Starve!" Kathe Kollwitz. Wiki Paintings, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .  MoMa. "THE COLLECTION." MoMA.org. Museum of Modern Art, n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2014..  RogaGallery. "Kathe Kollwitz - Biography." Kathe Kollwitz - Biography. RogaGallery, 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. .

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