Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Carrasco, Malena
Area of Concentration
Art History
Abstract
Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) is a German artist known for her evocative prints revealing the hardships of proletarian life, motherhood, and war. Kollwitz constantly revisits the theme of maternal loss, often through raw and highly personal representations. She uses established iconographic references, while simultaneously altering them drastically to fit her own narrative. Her images draw on her own trauma of grief and loss, and they have previously been understood only as the natural extension of her own lived experience. However, analyzing Kollwitz’s printmaking techniques in tandem with her subject matter enriches our understanding of her as an artist. I will demonstrate how she makes deliberate technical choices through the manipulation of the composition, tonal effects, and tactility to heighten the emotional impact of her work, making her imagery universally accessible.
Recommended Citation
Dickler, Shana, "KÄTHE KOLLWITZ’S EXPERIMENTS IN PRINTMAKING: INTENSIFYING THE EXPRESSION OF MATERNAL LOSS" (2019). Theses & ETDs. 5679.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5679