Yesterday I went to a meeting of the Baltimore Ethical Society to hear art historian, Ted Klitzke, talk about the famous German artist, Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945).
I'd read about her in Germany travel guides, because there are a couple museums devoted to her works (which are mostly lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts, with some sculptures) as well as streets and squares named after her.
I'd never been very familiar with her work, so I decided to see the exhibit based on Klitzke's collection at the art gallery at Loyola College. I met up with a group from the Ethical Society after the meeting. Klitzke showed up a little later, and commented on each work.
It turns out that his late wife had bought them at an auction, when they lived in Germany right after WWII. (He mentioned that she worked in Nuremburg and attended some of the trials of Nazi leaders.)
I found it useful to learn more about Kollwitz and her depictions of oppression and the downside of war, because I think it will help me to better understand some aspects of German society.
(I suspect that my next exploration into German history and culture may be when I get around to buying a thick book on German 19th century dissidents. I found it at the remainders store, Daedalus, and it should prove valuable for my research into the original communists (or is that communalists?). I snapped some photos of an exhibit about them that had just been added to the Cologne city museum, when I was there a year ago.)
Posted by raacluse at December 1, 2003 10:31 PM