Image Coming Soon

Tower of Mothers

1938

German, 1867-1945

Kollwitz first won acclaim as a printmaker in Berlin in the 1890s, before turning to sculpture in 1910. Inspired in part by her commitment to the workers' movement, her images focused on the human figure as an expressive form. This World War II era piece makes a powerful anti-war statement by focusing on the intense faces and gestures of women who want to keep their sons from war.

Bronze

11 1/4 x 11 1/4 x 11 1/2 in. (28.58 x 28.58 x 29.21 cm)

Silver Anniversary Fund

58.82

Provenance: [Galerie Alex Vomel, Dusseldorf, Germany]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum (Silver Anniversary Fund), August 5, 1958

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryTacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art League, "Contemporary Sculpture," 1960

Tacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art League, "German Expressionists," 1962

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Five Installations on the Fourth Floor: Unpretty Pictures", opened June 26, 1997

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Anselm Kiefer and Germanic Tradition",
June 4, 1999 - January 2, 2000

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "The Art of Protest" April 27, 2000 - January 21, 2001

Published ReferencesMcCausland, E. "Kathe Kollwitz," in PArnassus, FEbruary 1937, pp. 20-25

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM