Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht
Käthe Kollwitz. 1919-1920 C.E. German. Woodcut
Created in 1920 in response to the assassination of Communist leader Karl Liebknecht during an uprising of 1919. This work is unique among her prints, and though it memorializes the man, it does so without advocating for his ideology.
Form
Human grief dominates this woodcut which is illustrated in stark black and white. The wood block could be saturated with a thick layer of black ink, producing intense shadow-like effects that hung over the figures in the image like death. The imprecise nature of the carving produced the exaggerated features of the people in the image. Overall, the heavy use of black emphasized the darkness of mourning—especially when juxtaposed against the only predominantly white area in the image, the shrouded body.
Function
In the political turmoil after the First World War, many artists turned to making prints instead of paintings. The ability to produce multiple copies of the same image made printmaking an ideal medium for spreading political statements.
Content
Kollwitz work features themes of war and poverty. She also focuses on the image of women grieving over their dead children since she lost her own son in WWI. In the image, a mass of people hovers in grief over Liebknecht’s lifeless body. One figure rests a large fist on his chest. Another figure, on the far right, holds his hand to his face in anguish. At the center of it all stands a mother and infant who lean down toward Liebknecht with the rest of the crowd.
Context
Liebknecht was one of the founding members of the Spartacus League in Berlin which became the German Communist Party, In 1919 Liebknecht was shot to death during a Communist uprising in Berlin called the Spartacus Revolt (named for the slave who led a revolt against the Romans in 73 BCE). The German Communist Party (KDP) had grown out of the Spartacist Movement fomented by Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Counting on the working class for support, the KDP looked to Russia, which had only recently gone through its own revolution, as a template for reform in Germany. Kollwitz complete this work in the aftermath of WWI, when the theme of death was, understandably, on everyone’s mind. The thick forms, strong contrasts, and exaggerated features that she used to create the image were already attributes of German expressionism, and these attributes lent themselves to the heaviness of grief.
Innovation
Working in a variety of techniques including woodcut, lithography, and etchings, Kollwitz explored a range of issues from the overtly political to the deeply personal. Her graphic style and use of he woodblock had their source in 19th century Germany. She was also inspired by Munch and Klimt, yet she pursued an independent course, devoting her art to themes of inhumanity and injustice. To articulate her social and ethical concerns, she adopted an intensely expressive, naturalistic style that is unrelenting in it’s bleakness as her choice of subjects. Gaunt mothers and exploited workers provided much of Kollwitz’s thematic focus, but her most eloquent statements were reserved for war.
Artistic Decision
Kathe Kollwitz focused on pacifist subjects and the suffering of the poor. Like the later German Expressionist Max Beckman, she was Expressionist in technique but concerned more with social protest than inner exploration. A master printmaker in etchings lithographs, and woodcuts, Kollwitz used stark firms and harsh lines to express the tragic loss in war’s aftermath. She embraced the raw effect of woodblock printing to create pieces works that have cast off the subtlety and finesse of her earlier work in etching and lithography. Kollwitz’ felt that her protest against the horrors of war was best communicated in the rough edges and stark black and white that woodblock prints afforded.
- In the political turmoil after the First World War, many artists turned to making prints instead of paintings. The ability to produce multiple copies of the same image made printmaking an ideal medium for spreading political statements.
- German artist Käthe Kollwitz worked almost exclusively in this medium and became known for her prints that celebrated the plight of the working-class.
- This work, In Memoriam Karl Liebknecht was created in 1920 in response to the assassination of Communist leader Karl Liebknecht during an uprising of 1919.
- Germany went through a period of social and political upheaval after WWI. The Socialists and Communists both wanted to eliminate Capitalism and establish communal control over the means of production, but while the Socialists believed that the best way to achieve that goal was to work step by step from within the Capitalist structure, the Communists called for an immediate and total social revolution that would put governmental power in the hands of the workers.
- Memorial Sheet of Karl Liebknecht is in the style of a lamentation, a traditional motif in Christian art depicting the followers of Christ mourning over his dead body, casting Liebknecht as the Christ figure.
- The composition divides the sheet into three horizontal sections. The top section is densely packed with figures.
- Their faces are well modeled and have interesting depth in themselves, but the sense of space is very compressed – the heads push to the foreground and are packed into every available corner of space. It gives the impression of multitudes coming to pay their respects, without compromising the individuality of the subjects.
- This section draws attention to the specific action of the bending mourner. His hand on Liebknecht’s chest connects this section to the the bottommost level of the composition, the body of the martyred revolutionary.
- Woodblock printing is a technique in which a design is carved into a slab of wood which is then covered with ink and printed onto paper.
- The German Expressionist artists, in particular Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and the Brücke group, used woodcuts as early as 1904 to capture the rough, vital energy that they perceived in the work of so-called “primitive” societies without a fine art tradition.
- Kollwitz’ felt that her protest against the horrors of war was best communicated in the rough edges and stark black and white that woodblock prints afforded.
- Human grief; black and white magnify this; war and poverty; no political reference, but we the readers understand either way; artist's son died
