BREVIEW: Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz @ Ikon Gallery – exhibiting until 26.11.17

The Prisoners (1908, Peasants' War - plate 7) / Käthe Kollwitz

Words by Lucy Mounfield

Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) has always been recognised as an artist but her status and place in art history, until recently, has been overshadowed by her male counterparts – Otto Dix, Max Klinger, George Grosz, to name but a few. Subsequently, Kollwitz’ work has been lumped into the canon of German Expressionism and has often been ignored due to her empathetic depiction of working life; instead of being the artistic stereotype with lofty ambitions she became a conduit to the suffering of the people she depicted, herself becoming invisible in the process.

Ikon Gallery’s current exhibition, Portrait of an Artist – presented in collaboration with the British Museum, puts Kollwitz’ prints centre stage and marks the 150th anniversary of her birth. Many themes are explored: the crushing weight of human suffering, the question of agency and creativity in a male dominated world, the role of industrialisation in the plight of the working man and woman, revolution, personal loss, and death.

Käthe Kollwitz – Self Portrait (1924) woodcut © The Trustees of the British Museum These themes are not obvious at first; on entering I was greeted with a series of self-portraits spanning a forty-year period which, on their own, don’t lend themselves easily to interpretation. The prints are presented without comment; the accompanying text refers only to the medium of each print, eschewing lengthy biographical and symbolic interpretation. This allowed me to walk through the exhibition making connections as I went along.

Aesthetically, Kollwitz’ earlier self-portraits are excellent examples of her skill and draughtsmanship; these lithographs are incredibly detailed and the mark-making creates a sense of intimacy. However, as Kollwitz got older her technical ability became a little looser and her style changed from intricate lines to bold strokes that depicted the curvature of her older body. The latter depictions are particularly animalistic, with sunken eyes and a hollow face made up of several parts that don’t quite form a whole. These self-portraits from the 1920s and 1930s are barely recognizable – her face is worn down and the thick black lines create a sense of gloom. This technical and emotional change is somewhat baffling until you enter the second room.

Social and political protest is captured by Kollwitz in many small vignettes from her two series A Weaver’s Revolt (1897) and Peasants’ War (1908). Portrait of an Artist includes one lithograph and two etchings from the weaver’s series. These pieces were inspired by Gerhert Hauptmann’s play The Weavers (1892) which told the story of a failed revolt by Silesian weavers against mechanisation in 1844. Kollwitz may be referencing the literary world but her images have a universal truth about them that can be understood today.

Die Carmagnole (1901) / Käthe Kollwitz © The Trustees of the British MuseumHighlights from this section of the exhibition are The Carmagnole (1901) and Riot or Storming the Gate (1903-1897). These two prints stylistically reference images and iconography from the French Revolution most notably in The Carmagnole which depicts women dancing around a guillotine like a maypole. Indeed, the composition references a scene in Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities and the title of the piece is taken from the French Revolutionary song, ‘Die Carmagnole’. Here, Kollwitz captures the revolutionary spirit of the German people who happily worship the guillotine.

While many works depict moments of insurrection, there is never much to be happy about; even during revolt, faces appear tired, distorted, resigned. The aftermath of one such outbreak is depicted in the woodcut Memorial to Karl Leibnecht (1920), where haggard mourners surround the dead Leibnecht. The large block of white around Leibnecht’s dead head creates the impression of an orb like halo (alluding to depictions of Christ). He, along with Rosa Luxemburg and others, was tortured and murdered by the proto-Nazi Freikorps following the 1919 Spartacist uprising (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands / KPD)  in Berlin. Kollwitz herself was never a member of the KPD, and was in fact asked to create this piece by Leibknecht’s family. But looking at the work itself together with the other prints it can be interpreted as mourning not just Leibnecht the man, but the hope for a different future briefly glimpsed in the Free German Socialist Republic he had proclaimed.

From many wounds you bleed, o People (1896) continues the allusions to the Crucifixion by juxtaposing social commentary and religious symbolism. The image is very small and could almost be a preparatory print for a larger triptych or religious altarpiece.

From many wounds you bleed, o People (1896) / Käthe KollwitzThe tripartite composition has two crucified figures of women to the left and right whilst in the middle section shows a body being stabbed by man with sword. The central figure is lying on bed of thorns, who when analysed alongside the title could represent the ‘people’ of Germany. It has been argued that the two women on either side reference Michelangelo’s Slaves, though Kollwitz expresses anguish as female rather than male. The religious symbolism is most striking in this image and suggestive that death is inevitable for the ‘people’ who struggle against social injustice.

Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz also proposes to look at her role ‘as an empathetic and suffering mother.’ A large wall in the second room is dedicated to Woman with a Dead Child (1903) which has often been analysed regarding theWoman with Dead Child (1903) / Käthe Kollwitz - The Henry Barber Trust © The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham. death of her son Peter in 1914. A dead child’s head sticks out from the hulking arms of a hunched crossed legged figure. The triangular composition and muscular frame is reminiscent of Michelangelo’s Pietà – a marble sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the crucified Jesus. Four different versions hang alongside each other showcasing the creative process and the varying crescendo of emotions that erupt when losing a loved one.

However, for me, Raped (1907-08) stands out above the images of Woman with a Dead Child; this startling and visually unsettling work captures the empathy and social duty that runs throughout Kollwitz’ work. A woman lies tangled in an overgrown garden, her body contorted, her head and neck thrust back into the soil whilst her legs are bonded to the roots of the plants. She is forever bound by the memory of the rape. Unusually Kollwitz has chosen not to show the act of rape or the attacker, but instead the aftermath. The stillness of the scene makes the brutality of the rape more affecting. What I did not recognise at first but became clearer on my second and third viewing, is the young girl overlooking the scene from behind the shrubbery.

Kollwitz is often said to have been concerned with the ‘suffering mother’, Raped (1907/8, Peasants' War - plate 2) / Käthe Kollwitz but the suffering depicted – while the subject is often a mother – appears more universal. It is violation of not only the mother but the daughter that makes the image all the more chilling.

Like Raped, Kollwitz Death and Woman (1910) captures the artist’s preoccupation with the universality of suffering; Death twists itself round a woman’s naked body whilst a small child tugs at her breasts. The dynamic proximity of the three figures mirror that of the three stages of a human life, and the way the woman’s cheek touches Death’s forehead is as if she is greeting it like an old friend. The ecstatic face of the woman contrasts with her stiffly contorted body, implying that life is a cruel tightrope between pleasure and strife.

While Kollwitz depicts a world of downtrodden subjects, loss, and stillborn revolutionary moments, it is never apparent that to struggle on is foolish. How does one continue in a world without hope? Inspiration (1904-05) portrays a masculine figure hunched over a weary woman wearing a shawl. The larger muscular character is drawing into the ground using a scythe, their hands and arms becoming one as if being guided by him. This image can be read in two ways: firstly, the woman is Kollwitz the artist, hollow-faced and guided by inspiration. Secondly, the female figure represents the working people of Germany who continue to toil because the masculine rulers of society force them to. Here, Kollwitz could be arguing that while suffering is inevitable, it is also inescapable that she must continue to be creative in the face of anguish.

Portrait of an Artist: Käthe Kollwitz is a fantastic exhibition that not only showcases her as an artist – who had a brilliant sense of mastery and skill – but as someone who thought that printmaking was her egalitarian duty to expose the merciless and arbitrary cruelty of the poorer sections of German society. Yet in a way there is hope, because the pain that Kollwitz and others felt lives on through both her work and further exhibitions like this. 

Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz is exhibiting at Ikon Gallery until 26th November. For more on Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz, visit www.ikon-gallery.org/event/kathe-kollwitz

For more on Käthe Kollowitz, visit www.kaethe-kollwitz.de/en

For more on the British Museum, visit www.britishmuseum.org 

For more from Ikon Gallery, visit www.ikon-gallery.org

BPREVIEW: Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz @ Ikon 13.9-26.11.17

Self portrait – looking left (1901) / Käthe Kollwitz © The Trustees of the British MuseumWords by  Lucy Mounfield

On Wednesday 13th September, Ikon unveil their new exhibition, Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz, which will be on show until the 26th November. Organised by Ikon and the British Museum, this exhibition is drawn from a collection of forty works from the British Museum – complemented by a small number of loans from a private owner and The Barber Institute of Fine Arts collection. 

Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) was a Prussian artist whose drawing, prints and sculptural work depicted and reflected a world ravaged by poverty, class struggles and war. Kollwitz lived through a tumultuous period in Germany’s history – through the Empire of Kaiser Wilhelm II, post-First World War struggles and the Weimar Republic, the growth of the Nazi party and the outbreak of the Second World War.

Kollwitz’s body of work has divided opinion: conservative collectors admire the craftsmanship of her printmaking, whilst from a social political point of view her oeuvre encapsulates the anti-war stance and class consciousness of the German Expressionists in the inter-war years. Kollwitz’s two great graphic series, The Weaver’s Revolt (1897) and The Peasants War (1908), document social injustice suffered by working men and women.

Die Carmagnole (1901) / Käthe Kollwitz © The Trustees of the British MuseumConcurrently Käthe Kollwitz’ subject matter has been looked at through the lens of her as a female artist; Kollwitz did make considerable gains in the art world. She studied art courses at women only schools at a time when women were ostracized from academies. In 1919, she became the first woman to be elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts, later becoming the first female professor there.

Critical analysis of women artists has often been problematic. Many exhibitions and much art historical critique has previously centered around Käthe Kollwitz as a ‘woman and artist’, whose empathetic and compassionate art was directly related to her gender and role as mother. The theme of motherhood has been explored regarding the death of her son, Peter, in 1914 – during the First World War, citing this as an influence for her Woman with Dead Child (1903) print. This image epitomizes the animalistic quality of her work, the etched jagged lines mirror the sharp jolts of grief. Many artists depicting war and poverty have often described the physical signs of struggle, but Kollwitz and her contemporaries – Otto Dix and George Grosz among them – revealed the psychological effects of a country in turmoil.

Woman with Dead Child (1903) / Käthe Kollwitz - The Henry Barber Trust © The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of BirminghamIkon and the British Museum‘s Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz exhibition aims to look at her work through the ‘exploration of three themes: social and political protest, self-portraits and the role of an empathetic and suffering mother.’ It promises a re-examination of her as ‘someone who illuminates what it means to be an artist and to sustain a creative life’.

Furthermore, this exhibition will be the first time that many of the artworks have been seen together since Campbell Dodgson, Assistant Keeper – then Keeper – of the Department of Prints and Drawings (1893-1932) at the British Museum, bought these images in Germany before the First World War. Perhaps it will bring together the contrasting interpretations of Käthe Kollwitz’ work and present a fuller picture of her creative influences.

For more on Portrait of the Artist: Käthe Kollwitz, visit www,ikon-gallery.org/event/kathe-kollwitz 

For more on Käthe Kollowitz, visit www.kaethe-kollwitz.de/en/

For more on the British Museum, visit www.britishmuseum.org

For more from Ikon, visit www.ikon-gallery.org

BPREVIEW: BE Festival @ REP 21-25.06

BE Festival 21st - 25th June 2016

Words by Ed King

With absurdly pertinent timing, BE Festival throws open the doors of the Birmingham REP for its seventh year – bringing Birmingham just under a week’s worth of ‘head spinning performances from Europe’s four corners’.Birmingham Preview

Held from 21st – 25th June, the festival’s week long tickets are priced at £100 (£60 without dinner) or individual day/evening tickets at £22 (£14 without dinner) – giving you access to all studio shows. Extra tickets for Things Easily Forgotten (held at a ‘secret location’ from 22nd – 25th Jun) and Early Ideas (held at The Door on 25th Jun) can be bought separately for £5 each.

For direct info on Be Festival, including online tickets sales, visit www.befestival.org

Welcoming 24 visiting companies to the city, presenting an eclectic programme of theatre, dance, comedy and performing arts, BE 2016 also offers a series of workshops, panel discussions and installations – many exploring the festival’s overarching theme of democracy.

B Festival logoOpening the festival on Tues 21st June is Piccole Donne, an hour long ‘evolution’ from Italy’s TiDA Théâtre Danse – as three ‘future brides’ explore the ‘process that women must undertake to liberate themselves from oppressive societal forces’. Thurs 23rd Jun welcomes Bristol’s ‘purveyors of fine comic theatre’ – Publick Transport, presenting their ‘irreverent and possibly the most out of the ordinary adaptation’ of West Riding’s famous literary sisters in We Are Brontë.

Then as part of BE Festival’s final day of programming, Barcelona’s Cris Blanco performs her one woman show, The Vortex Agitator – taking the audience through an intimate investigation of cinema as the play’s protagonist tries to recreate the hubris of Hollywood from her home.

Also watch out for An Wei Lu Li’s ‘colossal human figure covering the surface of Centenary Square’, as the city (that’s you and I) chips away at the static façade of modern society with its feet.

And if that’s wasn’t enough for your cross continent cultural palate, there’s also live music, DJs, plus the return of BE Festival’s ‘famous’ interval dinner – throwing audience and actors together each night on the main stage.

Food, art and politics… what could possibly go wrong? Pass the salad MrGreenaway; are you voting for Brexit?

BE Festival 2016 – official trailer

(might not give you too much about the broader festival programme, but worth 1m 17sec of your world)

https://vimeo.com/161470698

BE Festival comes to REP and various city centre venues from 21st – 25th June. For direct info, including online tickets sales, visit www.befestival.org

For more from REP, visit www.birmingham-rep.co.uk