While the exhibition rooms of the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln have to remain temporarily closed due to general renovations, we are presenting works by the artist in various museums in the city of Cologne and the region in the series »Encounters - Käthe Kollwitz as guest in ...«. Because especially in these times, when the work and message of Käthe Kollwitz are more topical than ever, it is a matter close to our hearts to continue to make her art visible.
The kick-off at the Museum Ludwig will show moving images, photography, drawings and prints from February 28 to June 4, 2023: two collections that complement each other and allow an encounter with the artist and her work.
For Käthe Kollwitz the human being is the focus. Already in the imperial period, at the beginning of her career, she artistically dealt with social and political themes. Throughout her life, motifs of war, loss and mourning, but also of love, security and the struggle for peace dominate her work. Kollwitz skilfully put her statements on paper in drawings and prints with a great love of experimentation.
Life in the workingclass neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin and daily contacts with the proletarians in her husbandʼs doctorʼs office sensitized the artist to the suffering and concerns of the people. During the Weimar Republic, she achieved the highest level of popularity, asserted her social influence, and got involved against National Socialism.
The presentation at Museum Ludwig confronts a series of her always unembellished selfportraits from the 1920s and 1930s with photographs of the artist from 1925 by Hugo Erfurth. The moving image portrait of Käthe Kollwitz shot by Hans Cürlis in the same year allows a view over her shoulder during the creative process. The resulting drawing is one of 15 loans from the Kollwitz Collection in Cologne.
In addition to the selfportraits, the exhibits focus on the topic of homework - since the end of the 19th century and still today, the subject of sociopolitical debates.
A presentation of the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln at the Museum Ludwig Köln
MUSEUM LUDWIG
The Museum Ludwig is located in the immediate vicinity of Cologne Cathedral, opposite Cologne's main railway station.
MUSEUM LUDWIG
Heinrich-Böll-Platz
50667 Köln
www.museum-ludwig.de
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Hans Cürlis, Schaffende Hände: Käthe Kollwitz, 1925/26, Screenstill, Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln)
Käthe Kollwitz, Selbstbildnis, 1924, Kreidelithographie (Umdruck), Kn 209, Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln
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Käthe Kollwitz, Entwurfsskizze zu Heimarbeit, 1925, Kohle auf Ingres, NT 1073, Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln