Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) is one of my favourite artists - as for her, art IS emotion. Throughout her life she depicted a series of astonishing self-portraits. She was a master of ink, charcoal, stone & bronze. She is arguably one of the greatest artists in the Western Canon 
Her first great series was The Weavers (1890s). Here is graphic art of such calibre that it is both deeply moving & powerfully disturbing. She truly enjoyed the Weavers’ struggle. The great German artist Adolf Von Menzel praised the series as he could see her genius
Kollwitz’s next series was The Peasant’s War (1902-8) which sees a further unleashing of her expressionist genius & the creation of some of the most powerful images in art! Genius is an overused word but appropriate for Kollwitz
In 1910 Kollwitz turned towards the subject that she would make her own, motherhood & loss, in Runover. The loss of her son in 1914 was the genesis of her moving sculpture The Grieving Parents. Each is an island of tortured grief
As a committed socialist & pacifist Kollwitz created a memorial sheet for Karl Liebknecht (1919). Soon after she was appointed professor of the Prussian Academy of Arts. She then produced the War Cycle (1922-23), pictured is The Widow
Kollwitz created her three most famous posters - Germany’s Children Starving (1924), Bread (1924) & Never Again War (1924) at a time when Germany was collapsing after the Great War. It was a time of crisis & children were the great artist’s concern
The Far Right forced Kollwitz to resign her professorship & she started on her Death Cycle including The Call of Death (self-portrait), Young Girl in the Lap of Death & Death Seizing a Woman (1934). It’s hard not to see these as symbolic of the collapse of German civilisation
Woman with Dead Child (1903) is so powerful in its animal grief & contrasts with the beautiful Child’s Head on It’s Mother’s Arms (1900) & the amazing Death, Woman & Child
The choice to have Käthe Kollwitz’s Mother with Dead Son as the Central Memorial of the FR Germany for the Victims of War & Dictatorship was perfect. Kollwitz’s life & art are a testament to the idiocy of totalitarianism & the futility of war.
Finally should anyone ever say there is no female artist as good as Rembrandt, Goya or Van Gogh - tell them about Käthe Kollwitz. That she’s not more widely known is, well, stupid!
If you’re interested in acquiring some of my work I’ve extended the 2 for 1 deal to the 6th January (& not December as I mistakenly wrote in the tweet!). Take your pick!
