Curitorial Insights and Student Voices

Insights from The Hammer that Shapes Reality

By Shaletta Martin, BU class of 2025, Art History
Undergraduate Intern, Martin Museum of Art

My work on the Käthe Kollwitz exhibition was an amazing first experience. As an artist I was not familiar with, it allowed me to freely examine this selection from her body of work and dive deeper into the inspiration and mind of the artist herself. During my research, I gained a small glimpse into who Käthe was not only as an artist but also as a mother, advocate, and commentator on the social and economic hardships many people faced at that time, as she was deeply impacted by what she saw. Käthe’s focus on women and the working class is an aesthetic that she managed to develop and evolve into such masterful prints on par with works created by old masters such as Albrecht Dürer. 

Through her prints, we come face to face with the universality of the human experience. Within the boundaries of each print are words that don’t need to be spoken but instead felt as Käthe conveys the emotional power of her subjects through the depth of each line and her beautiful use of light and dark contrasts. While working on this exhibit, my goal was to examine each artwork objectively, utilizing resources such as the artist's personal diary to gain insight into the broader context of each piece. This included her personal experiences and the outside sources from which she found inspiration, such as Die Webers. I also found the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Koln to be a great resource that allowed me to provide a well-rounded contextual experience for the viewer. I am convinced that anyone fortunate enough to witness her works firsthand will be profoundly affected, whether by the visual potency of the image itself, the level of skill and craftsmanship required to achieve what she did, or a combination of both. 

My favorite piece in this exhibition would have to be The Downtrodden. Each piece in this exhibition is amazing, but this is the one that prompted one of my more visceral responses, mainly because it feels very different from the others, both artistically and emotionally. Set at one point as a triptych, unfortunately, we don’t get the opportunity to see it in that format, but what we do see is as equally impactful. This piece feels like a storyboard, a sequence of visual snapshots showing the very real consequences that so many poor, working-class people had to face. The fine details that Käthe was able to achieve with this, from the body lying on the table to the expressiveness of the woman’s face, evoke an emotion that practically comes off the print. There is mourning, there is despair, and there is a guttural cry that is palpable. For me, great art makes the viewer feel something they never anticipated, something that draws them back and gives them a different experience each time, and this is the reason why I think this piece in the exhibit exemplifies Käthe’s artistic abilities.

Image Credit: Käthe Kollwitz, "The Downtrodden (Zertretene)," C. 1900 ©[2024] Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York