Early in her career, Käthe Kollwitz abandoned her brushes and concentrated primarily on graphic work. She published many of her lithographs, etchings and woodcuts in portfolios, dealing with the themes of mothers and their children as well as the desperation surrounding war and death. Given the difficult political situation in Germany, as well as the loss of her son, Kollwitz’s work was always guided by personal experience. Here her disembodied head floats in an expanse of black, and a serious but sorrowful look occupies her face. Of her concern with expressing the difficulty and misery of her experiences, Kollwitz stated, “The joyous side of life simply did not appeal to me.”
Details
- Artist Name: Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945)
- Title: Self-Portrait, Turned to the Left
- Date: 1901
- Medium: Lithograph
- Dimensions: comp: 10-1/2 x 8 in. (26.7 x 20.3 cm); sheet: 16-1/8 x 13-1/8 in. (41.0 x 33.3 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1969.22.G
Object Information
Ernst Barlach / Käthe Kollwitz
- New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, 1968-09 to 1968-10
Selections from the Norton Simon Inc. Foundation and the Pasadena Museum and Graphics and Paintings from Private Collections
- Laguna Art Museum (Laguna Beach, Calif.), 1975-05-10 to 1976-06-15
German Expressionist Exhibition
- Norton Simon Museum, 1988-05-19 to 1989-06-18
Van Gogh to Picasso: Selected Master Prints from 1890-1960
- Norton Simon Museum, 1986-08-07 to 1987-04-26
Gaze: Portraiture After Ingres
- Norton Simon Museum, 2009-10-30 to 2010-04-05
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 611 p. 318
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