Religious Art & Worldviews · Artists
The German artist of grief: her Pietà, enlarged in Berlin's Neue Wache, is Germany's central memorial to the victims of war — a mother holding her dead son, made by a mother who lost hers.
Tagged: Sculpture Modern Commemorative Prophetic/Critical Memorial Art Secular and Non-Theistic
Kollwitz lost her son Peter in 1914 and spent eighteen years on the parents' memorial at Vladslo; she lost her grandson in the next war. Her prints and sculptures strip war of every glory and leave only the bereaved.
The pictured Pietà (1937–39), enlarged fourfold and set alone in the Neue Wache in 1993, is her bequest: one figure, one corpse, no flag.
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