In partnership with the Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Cologne, Germany, the MAMCS is organizing an important retrospective exhibition devoted to the German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945). An observer of the political and social crises of her time, her work being marked by her pacifist stance, Kollwitz is shown here as a complete artist (engraver, designer and sculptor) whose expressive realism influenced her own and later periods. In her own eyes a committed artist, Kollwitz chose to depict the great dramas of her time, not hesitating to include personal elements in her art. Recognized and valued in her country during her lifetime and seen as a model by many young artists, Kollwitz was endangered by Hitler's rise to power.

This extensive retrospective (170 works covering 600 m2) brings before the public an art that is both autobiographical and universal, evoking as it does maternal love, social conflicts, the Great War, death and mourning. Bringing together her most famous engraved cycles (A Weavers' Revolt, The Peasant War), drawings and graphic works as well as many self-portraits, the exhibition brings out Käthe Kollwitz's expressive and at times poignant line. With thirty pieces, some acquired during the artist's lifetime, the MAMCS is currently the only French public collection to hold such a representative sample of Kollwitz's work.

This exhibition enjoys the exceptional support of Eurométropole de Strasbourg. In partnership with the French Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (May-November 2019).

Curators: Hannelore Fischer, directress of the Kollwitz Museum Köln and Alexandra von dem Knesebeck, art historian and specialist in the work of Käthe Kollwitz, author of a catalogue raisonné of the engravings.