Diary and Letters of Kaethe Kollwitz

I'm an artist that has admired Kathe for years. It was exciting to get to get to read the experiences and innermost thoughts that made her the person she was. Also, being in diary/letter form, this book is an easy read for when you have limited time.. I've read this at my day job during my lunch period and breaks.. there's always a good place to stop and pick up again.

Kaethe Kollwitz created some of the most moving drawings and lithos I have ever seen. Many are dark and sorrowful. Even so, many have an indestructible kernel of hope in them kept alive through sheer personal will. Now that I've read these extracts from her diaries and correspondence, I can understand better the woman who made that art. Above all, she was a woman founded on her emotions. I don't means twittering sentimentality. I mean the kind of love that kept her one marriage strong for 49 years, until she was widowed. I mean the kind of devotion that kept her at work for fifteen years on the memorial to her son, fallen in the first World War. I mean the kind of dedication that led her to teach master classes, even though she grew up when women were almost forbidden to attend advanced schooling. Despite her losses in the two World Wars, her life had much in it to bolster her strength. Her family supported her childhood interest in art, and her father was willing to get her what training he could. She married young, and somewhat against her parents' wishes. Her husband, however, supported her art, and she remained close to her parents. She fully accepted motherhood; her sons and later her grandchildren were bulwarks of her adult life. She engendered lifelong affection in her friends and her family. Her surviving son compiled this tribute to her life, and her grand-daughter added a few pages about Kaethe's last days. There are a few dozen samples of her drawings, sculpture, lithos and woodcut at the end of this book. (Given her tendency towards transfer lithos, the distinction between litho and drawing isn't always clear.) The reproductions aren't great, just enough to indicate the structure and feeling of each piece. The set is nicely bracketed, however, by an early self-portait and her last one. The face is the same handsome woman in both, but the later Kaethe is wizened and wisened by her years. This is a wonderful book. I am truly glad to know more about this woman. If you want just reproductions of her art, this is likely to disappoint. If you want her herself, you've found it. //wiredweird

For anyone out there who also worships Kaethe Kollwitz and her extraordinary work, this book is a must-read. Edited by the son that lived--Hans--"The Diary and Letters of Kaethe Kollwitz" provides an intimate portrait of the woman who lived behind the drawings in her own words. This book breathed life and personality into somebody who has been one of my greatest artistic influences. I found it exceptionally moving to be able to share her emotions, thoughts and tragedies in this way.