Expressive Drawing - kathe kollwitz

I have already written a report on kathe kollwitz for my printmaking unit, but i wanted to write a little about her for my expressive drawing unit. As i said in my last post she was a German Artists born in 1867 and died in 1945.

Kollowitz did a lot of self portraits....

Self-portrait, 1891

Self-portrait, 1893

Self-Portrait, 1910

Self-Portrait, 1934

I feel many of her portraits are very isolated and i notice a lot of empty space around her, making to seem more alone. The expressions on her face are very serious and i think at times an air of seeming compassionate...I think her work is very honest. Like she observed her world around her the people she saw and she created works true to what she saw without trying to hide anything.

Woman with Dead Child, 1903

They feel very emotionally intense and as is said in my last blog they are depicting people in poverty and people who are emotionally devastated. I think this is partly due to her use of monotone. I really like her work, as hard as it is to look at, it is very raw. Her use of rough line and texture i think speaks for the rough life the people in her drawings had to endure. I think it is something to remember when drawing, your subject and how you can truly capture your subject.

I perticularly like the images where hands are the highlight as i feel hands say a lot of someone.

Working Woman in Profile Facing Left, 1903

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