Queensland Art Gallery Presscuttings Book 8 : Pressclippings, 1977-1981

~E Peter Stuy- vesant collec t1011 of bronze sculptures by Ernst Barlach and Kathe Kollwitz, In It.$ 13th year of world tour and now presented at t h e Queensland Art .Gal– lery, should leave no feeling person un– moved. The mnrrlage or the two great Oennan artists In one exhibition 1s more than appropriate. They have much In common. Both or them were passionately and com– paaslonaiely Involved with the human condi– tion. They were close to eacb other In time and by mu tu a I admiration. Kollwttz, born In 1867, was only three years older than Barlnch, * Botb stemmed from the northern part of Germany. Both shared the rate common to the best Oerman artlst.s un– der the Hitler regime. They were defamed, their work declared dege– nerate and partly de– •troyed, partly removed from all the Important collections Jn which they had been represented, and they \\'ere e1•en for– bidden to continue work. !Both remained It~ Ger– many until their bitter end, without seeing the day or their restorat.Jon to rormer fame. Broken– hea.rted, Barlach died in 1938 and Kollwltz In 1945. Luckily, most of their work has been retrle\'ed from hiding places. Now, "'hen social Issue., In art ha1·e come to the fore a g n In , their timeless m~ssnge has renewed stg– nlrtcnnce. B1trlo.ch was a. born• sculptor. Worktns t n wood. stone, clay and bronze, he was unsur• passed n.., a carver in wood, rrom which h e cxt1uted on expressive– ness or mntcrt11J nnd ronn mulching the grett Ck!rn1011 11·oodcen·crs of Oothlo times, "ho "·ere part or his lnsptrnUon. m s undcrst.nndln!f of wood • !so exp re~ i tsr.li In the 11·oodcu1i which accompany I.lie hookform of his plnys, Whel her he used words, grAphlcs or sculplure, he was o. dy– n n m I c, poeUc cre1<1,0r ll'ho ga1·e form t.o his d~p In lghts into the nat.urc of mnn. Ills well knn,.,1 bronzes In I his c~hlhltlon, In .s11lle or thr.lr moderate, ~lte. have a, monumf'ntal ... 11,y which Is lho n,~nlt or I their tautness, 110Udlt1 and oonclu•I"' •lmpllclly, Each or these unfor– gettable tlgures, whUe based on penetrating ob– servation, ha., been 1mrl– fled o! nil superlluld In• clden ta Is so ns to concen– trate on the creation or an inner Ute so Intense that the solid volume9 find It hard LO contain It. Each or the figures transcends the lndlvl:I and ls understood , a vitul symbol of h an states. Barlach resolved the paradox or a sculptu– rally aelf-contalned form and the evooaUon or boundless realms "ilhln and without. Who can fof!et the so- 11 tary men who sing or rend to the Invisible ,..Ind? . • . t,he Beggar Woman, hiding under her clolik and stre~lng out her cupped hands to the Invisible, uncon– cerned pa.sser-by. The beholder of this sculpture ts forced to Imagine. And who can tall to Imagine the unspeakable tr age d I e s those huge, vnulted, closed eyes or the angel rrom the Gu e s trow Memorlal 11927) are holding, and which the tender sllent I Ip s bemourn so eloquently? *· K11llwl1t•~ fame u a sraphle artist '111111 Jonr estabU1hed before she tamed to IClUlplllN! In mldclle Ure. As a black-and-white a-rtlst she left a colOS88I legacy or dra11,fngs, etch– ings and lithographs, all deep!)• concerned with suffering humanity. ERNST BARI.ACH'S head of the Guestrow memorial. She , shared the ex– periences or her doctor husband, who had his practice In the poorest quarter or Berlin. She had lh•ed thrOUih times or great upheavals. In World War 1 ahe lost her son, Peter. She 11·1tncssed misery, unemployment, sickness ap d death. And she .eould not hal'e home h er boundl ess com– passion nnd anguish If <ns she stated In her diary), she could not have found an outlet tor her feelings 1n her work as an artist. And, finally, the Nazi regime brought the ultimate despair. Yet her "'Ork expreSM!s not hate, only \\'omanly compassion of almost un– bearable Intensity. St;ylfstlcally less an ex– pressionist than Barlach, she remained nn emo– rlonnl realist of 11re11t po11·er, striving, 115 the ~·ear,; 11-ent by, towards greater slmpl!flcatton or statement,,