{"id":3932,"date":"2016-03-23T15:45:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-23T19:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/?p=3932"},"modified":"2016-03-23T15:45:59","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T19:45:59","slug":"review-mothers-arms-kathe-kollwitzs-women-and-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/2016\/03\/23\/review-mothers-arms-kathe-kollwitzs-women-and-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Mothers’ Arms: K\u00e4the Kollwitz\u2019s Women and War"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Ivy Vance<\/p>\n

\"Kollwitz_The
K\u00e4the Kollwitz, Die M\u00fctter (The Mothers), Plate VI from the series Krieg (War), 1921-1922. Woodcut printed in black on Japan paper. Smith College Museum of Art, SC 1857:78<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The current exhibition at Smith College Museum of Art is a thoughtful examination of the work of the German artist, K\u00e4the Kollwitz. Specifically, it focuses on Kollwitz\u2019s depiction of women and war, as mothers, mourners, and witnesses. Kollwitz, who lived through World War I and died shortly before the end of World War II, skillfully uses printmaking to illustrate her bleak outlook on the wars that ravaged Europe in the first half of the 20th<\/sup> century. The use of lithography and woodcuts in portraying these maternal, but melancholy scenes produce haunting, mostly monochromatic prints that depict the plights of women in wartime Germany.<\/p>\n

The exhibition is presented as a timeline of Kollwitz\u2019s journey not only as an artist, but as a mother. It shows prints that were inspired by the Weavers\u2019 Uprising, the Peasant Wars, and the First and Second World Wars. The gallery follows this timeline, which is established by Kollwitz\u2019s series of prints that reflect these events. Almost every piece that is displayed is accompanied by an excerpt taken from Kollwitz\u2019s personal journal or correspondence, many of which directly refer to the coinciding print. This adds a layer to the work that invites the viewer into what the artist was feeling at the time of its creation. This is especially potent in the prints that depict motherhood and grief, which reflect Kollwitz\u2019s own struggle with the loss of her son Peter in World War I. The softness produced by the lithographs and the stark contrasts produced by the woodcuts create opposing, but congruent imagery that represent remembrance and resilience.<\/p>\n

Kollwitz\u2019s work is unique from other depictions of war. Her deliberate turn inward to the maternal and the domestic created images that represent the deep suffering that war produces. These aspects of war are often forgotten, but Kollwitz\u2019s work brings them to the forefront. The rest of the gallery displays artifacts from the era: propaganda posters featuring women, Nazi paraphernalia, as well as newspapers that Kollwitz\u2019s prints were featured in to provoke social change. This, along with Kollwitz\u2019s prints, creates a robust timeline that transports the viewer into the mindset of the artist.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mothers’ Arms: K\u00e4the Kollwitz\u2019s Women and War is on view at the Smith College Museum of Art from January 29\u2014<\/span>May 29, 2016.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Ivy Vance 13F is a Research Assistant at the Institute for Curatorial Practice.<\/em><\/p>\n

This post is part of a series of essays, opinions, and reviews written by students, faculty, and staff of the\u00a0Institute for Curatorial Practice<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Ivy Vance The current exhibition at Smith College Museum of Art is a thoughtful examination of the work of the German artist, K\u00e4the Kollwitz. Specifically, it focuses on Kollwitz\u2019s depiction of women and war, as mothers, mourners, and witnesses. Kollwitz, who lived through World War I and died shortly …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":991,"featured_media":3933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37860],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-institute-for-curatorial-practice","column","threecol","has-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/991"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3932"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3935,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3932\/revisions\/3935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hampshire.edu\/theharold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}