Student Work

 

“Then I am Praying”: War, Religion, and Shared Suffering in the Pechstein and Kollwitz Prints at the University of Cincinnati Art Collection Open Access Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download file
Date Uploaded: 04/07/2022
Date Modified: 04/26/2022

The University of Cincinnati Art Collection houses prints by two early 20th century German Expressionist printmakers, Max Pechstein (1881-1955) and Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945). Pechstein’s Das Vater Unser (The Lord’s Prayer) series (1921) originally a portfolio of twelve, is represented in the University of Cincinnati Art Collection with nine of the bold woodcut prints. Kollwitz’s small postcard lithographs, Two Chatting Women with Two Children (c. 1930) and The Hospital Visit (c. 1926), are intimate and show the artists soft touch. Though formally very different, these prints share a common subject, the suffering of Germans during the interwar period (1918-1939). Both artists personally experienced both World Wars and their tragedies, and while Pechstein rarely addressed it directly, Kollwitz’s career was full of her antiwar sentiments. The prints grapple with the grief, political turmoil, and financial difficulties associated with the interwar period and each artist turns to their own form of religion to exercise their pain.

Creator
License
Subject
Time Period
  • 20th century
Submitter
College
Department
Degree
  • Bachelor of Art History, BA
Date Created
Advisor
  • Christopher Platts
Language

Items

Permanent link to this page: https://scholar.uc.edu/show/6969z260c