TOLEDO – In her series of woodcut prints called War (Krieg), German artist K?§the Kollwitz portrays with
devastating accuracy the emotional toll of World War I. The faces of mothers, fathers, soldiers, widows
and refugees are etched with anguish, not glory. She knew this grief firsthand-her son was killed in
battle.
For curator Paula Reich, works like these achieve something documentary photographs aren’t always able
to.
It’s one reason she has gathered 40 paintings, prints and sculpture from the Toledo Museum of Art
collection for display in the exhibition "The Great War: Art on the Front Line." On view from
July 25 to Oct. 19 in Gallery 18, the show marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the conflict.
Admission is free.
These works, Reich said, capture "a deeper reality,"
Though the First World WMany artists had personal experiences with the unprecedented carnage that they
later expressed in their work.
