biography
| name: |
Kollwitz, Käthe
|
| |
née Schmidt
|
pronunciation:
[kolvits]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1867–1945)
|
| biography:
| Artist and sculptor, born in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). She studied in Königsberg, then Berlin, where she married a doctor, Karl Kollwitz, who established a clinic in a poor quarter of the city, giving her an insight into life at the lowest levels of society. She chose serious, tragic subjects, with strong social or political content, such as the ‘Weaver's Revolt’ (1897–8) and ‘The Peasants' War’ (1902–8). After her youngest son was killed in battle (1914) she began a sculpture in granite which was later erected in Flanders as a memorial to all the young men killed in the war (1932). She was elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts (the first woman member), becoming head of graphic arts (1928), but was expelled by the Nazis in 1933. Her home and studio with much of her life's work were destroyed by bombs in 1943. |
|
|
