Fülszöveg
Kaethe Kollwitz Drawings
by
Herbert Bittner
Considered by many the greatest woman artist the world has ever known, Kaethe Kollwitz (1867-1945) bequeathed to the world a legacy of superbly rendered drawings that revealed her sensitivity to sorroiv and acquaintanceship with grief. The essence of her art is an expression of despair and anguish in her identification with the oppressed and humiliated peoples of the world. Her work cried out for a brotherhood of mankind in an era when art was detached from man and wholly concerned with the transcendental themes of religious piety and godliness. The very titles of her monumental print cycles—The Downtrodden, Death, The Peasant War—renect her deep concern for humanity.
Kaethe Kolhuitz Drawings, the first book in English to deal exclusively with this aspect of her work, offers a profound and intimate glimpse of the artist and her creative process. Through text and illustrations (there are more than 150 plates, some oL which are...
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Fülszöveg
Kaethe Kollwitz Drawings
by
Herbert Bittner
Considered by many the greatest woman artist the world has ever known, Kaethe Kollwitz (1867-1945) bequeathed to the world a legacy of superbly rendered drawings that revealed her sensitivity to sorroiv and acquaintanceship with grief. The essence of her art is an expression of despair and anguish in her identification with the oppressed and humiliated peoples of the world. Her work cried out for a brotherhood of mankind in an era when art was detached from man and wholly concerned with the transcendental themes of religious piety and godliness. The very titles of her monumental print cycles—The Downtrodden, Death, The Peasant War—renect her deep concern for humanity.
Kaethe Kolhuitz Drawings, the first book in English to deal exclusively with this aspect of her work, offers a profound and intimate glimpse of the artist and her creative process. Through text and illustrations (there are more than 150 plates, some oL which are published here for the first time), it enables the reader to achieve a deeper understanding of this unique woman and of the forces that shaped tier work. As Herbert Bittner explains in his eloquent text, the art of Kaethe Kollwitz is dominated by compassion, strength, self-control, and an air of
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stark drama. At its finest in black and white, it is characterized by her em-pathic concentration on the working classes.
Kaethe Kollwitz was the first woman to be elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts. Although she received such honor and recognition during her lifetime, she never lost her simplicity or her contact with the mothers, the young and old men, the children who were the victims of the fear and hunger that periodically swept her country.
Since Kaethe Kollwitz sought constantly to perfect her graphic techniques, this comprehensive study traces the evolution of each of her creations from the "first idea" to the more finished form, revealing the remarkable interrelationship between her work and her life. It is a beautiful memorial to a woman whose graphic works were to earn her a high place among the masters of world art.
THE AUTHOR Herbert Bittner has achieved prominence as an an historian, writer, and publisher both in the United States and in Europe. He has studied the history of art and Greek philosophy at the universities of Berlin, Hamburg, Padua, and Rome, and was employed as a director of the departments of fine arts and foreign languages by a well-known Italian publisher before coming to this country where he established his own publishing firm. Mr. Bittner is the founder of the Herbert Bittner Librería Antiquaria in New York City, and has arranged a number of exhibitions for the Wes-termann Gallery. His extensive interests include music, old and rare books, typography, layout and book design.
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