Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne
The Käthe Kollwitz Museum at Cologne's Neumarkt houses the world's most extensive collection of works by Käthe Kollwitz . It is still closely related to the Kollwitz family today. Its sponsor is the Kreissparkasse Köln .
Museum history
The Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne was founded in 1985. The occasion was the first presentation of the Käthe Kollwitz collection of the Kreissparkasse Cologne on April 22, 1985, the 40th anniversary of the artist's death, in the rooms of the former boardroom of the financial institution. Since 1989, the museum has been located on the upper floor of the shopping arcade on Cologne's Neumarkt, designed by Hans Schilling , with an exhibition area of 1000 m 2 .
The history of the collection began in 1976 when two lithographs by the artist were acquired in the context of a Kollwitz exhibition in the customer hall of the Kreissparkasse . Together with the purchase of a bundle of 60 drawings from the Kollwitz family collection in 1983, these form the basis for today's most extensive Kollwitz collection of around 300 drawings , over 500 prints, as well as all of the posters and all of the artist's sculptural work that can be found in museums.
The commitment of the bank as sponsor of the museum is motivated by the historical connections that exist between Kollwitz's oeuvre and the historical roots of the German savings bank system. The artist's themes - poverty, hunger, suffering - stand for human needs, which the savings banks also set out to overcome in the 19th century. In addition, with the founding of the museum, the Kreissparkasse Köln is following the patronage tradition of the city of Cologne. In accordance with an agreement with the Kollwitz community of heirs, the collection is constantly being completed, documented, made accessible for scientific research and presented to the public.
management
The founding director of the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne was Jutta Bohnke-Kollwitz, Käthe Kollwitz's granddaughter. In January 1990 Hannelore Fischer took over the management.
collection
In the area of printmaking , all major series of works are in the museum's possession: the early etching cycles based on literary models, Ein Weberaufstand (1893–1897) and Peasants' War (1901–1908), the woodcut series War (1921/1922) and Proletariat (1925) and the late lithographed series Death (1934–1937). In addition, there are singular works such as the large color lithograph Selbstbildnis en face (1903/1904), which remained without an edition as an experimental sheet, or the last lithograph, Seeds should not be ground (1941), the artist's legacy against soldier death and war.
The main focus of the collection in the area of drawings is on the one hand special early works such as the charcoal drawings for the satirical magazine Simplicissimus or three of the ten colored pastels that have been preserved , on the other hand the late work with leaves on the subject of “death”. There are also pencil or charcoal drawings on the subjects of “family”, “politics” or “war”, love scenes and nudes from the so-called “Secreta” folder, self-portraits and portraits of workers. There is also an extensive collection of sketchy preliminary drawings for the memorial “ Mourning Parents ” (1914–1932) on the military cemetery in Vladso as well as for the printing series, focusing on the genesis of the “Peasants' War” (1901–1908) and “War” (1921) cycles / 22).
Particular importance lies in the collection of plastic works with all 15 museum-accessible bronze sculptures, almost all of which can be seen in the museum in rare early casts. Together with a copy of the grieving parents couple in church ruins Old St. Alban (1956 by the workshop Ewald Mataré of his students Heerich and Joseph Beuys created) and the "grave relief Levy" (1938) on the Jewish cemetery in Cologne-Bocklemünd results so in Cologne the opportunity to survey the entire sculptural oeuvre of the artist.
The posters that Käthe Kollwitz created, true to her motto “I want to work in this time”, especially in the 1920s against the war and for social justice, humanity and peace, are also completely available.
Another area of the collection is the almost complete book graphic by Käthe Kollwitz.
research
For scientific research and documentation of the life and work of Käthe Kollwitz, the Cologne Museum has a specialist library with publications by and about Käthe Kollwitz as well as literature on artists who have worked in their environment. In addition, the catalog raisonné of prints in a revised version by Alexandra von dem Kneesebeck was published in 2002 with the financial support of the museum sponsor, and in 2010 an extensive monograph with fundamentally new findings from Kollwitz research was published. In March 2016, the museum, in collaboration with Annette Seeler, presented the catalog raisonné of Käthe Kollwitz's sculpture , the associated online catalog was activated in May 2016. Hannelore Fischer, director of the museum, is currently revising and expanding the catalog raisonné of Käthe Kollwitz's drawings .
Exhibitions
In addition to the presentation of its permanent collection, the museum mainly shows monographic special exhibitions with works by artists whose work is historically or thematically related to Käthe Kollwitz. Further exhibitions focus on artistic techniques. Since 2006 exhibitions with photographs have been shown parallel to photokina .
Special exhibitions 2019/2020
- “Berlin realism. From Käthe Kollwitz to Otto Dix ”, October 10, 2019 to January 5, 2020, in cooperation with the Bröhan Museum Berlin
- "Kollwitz in the dining room - living with 'heavy fare' ... Insights into private Kollwitz collections", July 4 to September 29, 2019
- as part of the descPhotoszene Festival Cologne: “ Anja Niedringhaus . Bilderkriegerin ”, March 29 to June 30, 2019
- “Käthe Kollwitz - turning point (s). Awakening and upheaval between the German Empire and National Socialism ”, January 10 to March 24, 2019
Special exhibitions 2018
- “The sculptor thinks! Gerhard Marcks - from drawing to sculpture "(March 2nd to June 3rd, 2018)
- "Japan begins at the Baltic Sea: Jan Kollwitz - 30 Years of Japanese Ceramics" (June 7th to 17th, 2018)
- "A turning point - new beginnings and upheavals in the work of Käthe Kollwitz" (June 19 to September 16, 2018)
- " Éva Besnyő - Photographer: Budapest, Berlin, Amsterdam" (September 21 to December 9, 2018)
Special exhibitions 2017
- "The soul outward - Kollwitz in self-portraits : Two significant new additions to the Cologne collection in their context" (12 January to 22 February 2017)
- "Revolt! Renaissance, Reformation and Revolt in the Work of Käthe Kollwitz "(March 11th to June 5th, 2017)
- " Gustav Seitz : A Memorial for Käthe Kollwitz " (June 13 to September 17, 2017)
- "Rethinking Kollwitz - Käthe Kollwitz Prize Winner of the Akademie der Künste, Berlin " (September 29 to December 10, 2017)
- "Self-portraits - Tremezza von Brentano on his 75th birthday" (December 15, 2017 to February 25, 2018)
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Individual evidence
- ^ Kreissparkasse Köln: See art - experience life. Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne. Brochure, n.d., p. 13.
- ↑ Hannelore Fischer (Ed.): Käthe Kollwitz. The grieving parents. A memorial for peace. Cologne 1999, p. 127.
- ^ Käthe Kollwitz: The diaries. Edited by Jutta Bohnke-Kollwitz. Berlin 1989. Entry from December 4, 1922.
- ↑ Alexandra von dem Kneesebeck: Käthe Kollwitz. Catalog raisonné of the graphic. New edition of the directory by August Klipstein , published 1955. 2 vols. Bern 2002.
- ↑ Hannelore Fischer, Alexandra von dem Kneesebeck: "Paris charmed me ..." Käthe Kollwitz and French modernism. Cologne 2010.
- ↑ Catalog raisonné of the sculpture by Käthe Kollwitz. Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne, accessed on May 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Catalog raisonné of the drawings by Käthe Kollwitz. Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne, accessed on May 17, 2016 .
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 56 ′ 11.9 ″ N , 6 ° 56 ′ 48.2 ″ E