Käthe Kollwitz: The Art of Compassion

This exhibition featured 72 drawings and prints and five sculptures by Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), grouped to emphasize the primacy of drawing in her artistic process, as well as the continuity of her subject matter and themes. The exhibition was organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, under the direction of Brenda Rix, Assistant Curator of Prints and Drawings. Vassar also presented a small companion exhibition drawn from its permanent collection, "Views of Women: Prints in Germany, 1880-1905," of etchings and woodcuts by Kollwitz and her contemporaries Edvard Munch, Max Klinger, Peter Behrens, and Franz von Stück.

This exhibition was presented at Vassar in three main sections. The first included studies of models, early scenes inspired by literature (such as "At the Church Wall", from Goethe's "Faust") and Kollwitz's first important print series, "A Weaver's Rebellion" (1893-97). The second section is devoted to her print series "Peasants' War" (1905-08) and to works evoking the suffering and upheaval of the First World War and its aftermath. The third section, with drawings and prints from the 1890s through the 1930s, concentrates on the recurring themes of motherhood and death. Outstanding drawings from the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart were included throughout the exhibition, and illuminated important linkages between Kollwitz's drawings and prints.

The Art Gallery of Ontario was the only other venue for the exhibition, which was presented at Vassar College with the generous support of the Smart Family Foundation, Inc. There are works that appeared in this exhibition that were loans to the Loeb and therefore do not appear on this website.