u/CauliflowerVisual401

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Käthe Kollwitz completed her Krieg (War) woodcut series in 1922–23, carving it five years after the death of her son Peter in WWI. Having said that she had to teach herself to redraw. These were her first public woodcuts and likely were a direct response to Dix and other contemporaries who were working in that medium and processing the war in a very different way. Her seven plates contain no fallen soldiers or allegory.

She captures the widow, the grieving parents, the mothers, and the nation in grief. Constant in her work and particularly Krieg, the face bears the psychological trauma while the hands seem to be doing the work. Here in The Widow 1, it is the only one of the seven with a figure alone. However, she is not alone but she is bearing a child. Captured through the sillouette and hands in a position to already shield the fatherless child in her womb. The ambient "chatter" almost like a shiver or chill. She unlike the Widow II from later, still seems to mourn while the second widow seems in such grief that she is only pure exhaustion on the brink of expiration.

Widow I is the most interior and smallest of the plates at 14.5x9.2 (roughly, as the composition is irregular). All are printed on paper of roughly 26"x19".

I've spent the last 8 months doing a forensic master study of the full series studying her originals at museum archives and recreating each plate by hand, carved at original scale.

The work sits in a long tradition: performers bringing an existing masterwork forward because it still resonates, not to replicate but to understand from the inside.

Today, I am beginning to show the work and some of the mission behind it (which is part of a humanitarian support campaign for widows and girls in active conflict).

I will be posting long form essays and process works in other spaces.

Never Again War.

Nie Wieder Krieg.

In 1922–23, Kollwitz completed seven woodcuts about war. Not about soldiers but about the widow, the grieving parents, the mothers forming a circle around what remains. She carved them after losing her son Peter in 1914.

I've been doing a forensic master study of the full series for about 18 months. Every plate hand-carved at original scale in linoleum. I've studied her original prints through the archives of the museums and am analyzing her mark-making at 800–1000% magnification, where she carved with the grain, where against it, how she used surface variation to compensate for the texture woodcut gets naturally from the wood grain.

The translation from woodcut to linoleum is the central technical challenge. Linoleum doesn't give you grain, so the texture has to be built through carving decisions and some improvised tools.

Two plates are complete: Das Volk (Plate VII) and Die Witwe I (Plate III). Five in progress.

Happy to talk process, the linoleum vs woodcut translation decisions, or anything about the study methodology. This has been the most technically demanding work of my career.

I am documenting it online and in socials for art as a witness and for humanitarian aid. One hundred years later these works don't feel like history.

In 1922–23, Kollwitz completed seven woodcuts about war. Not about soldiers but about the widow, the grieving parents, the mothers forming a circle around what remains. She carved them after losing her son Peter in 1914.

I've been doing a forensic master study of the full series for about 18 months. Every plate hand-carved at original scale in linoleum. I've studied her original prints through the archives of the museums and am analyzing her mark-making at 800–1000% magnification, where she carved with the grain, where against it, and how pearwood behaves vs lino.

The translation from woodcut to linoleum is the central technical challenge. Linoleum doesn't give you grain, so the texture has to be built through carving decisions alone. My solution was varying carve depth sometimes to intentionally splinter material or using hand made scribbers

Two plates are complete: Das Volk (Plate VII) and Die Witwe I (Plate III). Five in progress.

Happy to talk process, the linoleum vs woodcut translation decisions, or anything about the study methodology. This has been the most technically demanding work of my career.

I have much more to say on the work and it's impact and meaning but will leave it here for now

other works available at HoustonPrintShopArt on Etsy! Prefer to deal locally and avoid fees