Käthe Kollwitz: Activism in Art
Exhibition runs from: February 3, 2021 to April 10, 2021
Admission is free. Donations are appreciated.
This exhibition draws on the Benton’s collection of more than 100 prints and drawings by German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) to explore the relationship between her art and activism. Kollwitz is known for her humanitarianism, determination to communicate to a wide audience, and commitment to socialist ideals, though she never joined a political party. She was also a gifted printmaker who used her art to give voice to the common person, the suffering, and the poor.
At the center of the exhibition is War [Krieg] (1923), a suite of woodcuts that marks the artist’s turn from intaglio to more widely reproducible print processes, including woodcut and lithography. Rather than the battlefield, the series shows scenes from the home front in a starkly graphic style dominated by fields of black, out of which Kollwitz’s figures seem to emerge. The artist’s first woodcut series, War conveys the raw emotion felt by those who, like Kollwitz, lost a loved one to World War I.
The current exhibition The Human Epoch: Living in the Anthropocene continues through March 10.
Benton Museum hours are Wednesday-Friday 10-4 and Saturdays 1-4. Please go to https://benton.uconn.edu/ for what to expect when visiting and COVID guidelines.
THE WILLIAM BENTON MUSEUM OF ART
University of Connecticut
School of Fine Arts
245 Glenbrook Road
Storrs, CT
www.benton.uconn.edu
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For more information, contact: The Benton Museum at 860-486-4520