Käthe Kollwitz's Death and the Mother
			How Some Faculty Will Use Utopia and Alienation: German Art and Expressionism, 1900-1933
	Art Museum Programs Nourish Academic and Artistic Interests in German Culture   Why Expressionists Liked Woodcuts and Bold, Rapid Brush Strokes   Oberlin's New German Cinema Series   German Culture Series, Schedule of Events		SEPTEMBER 16, 1999--Oberlin's exhibit devotes various sections of the galley to specific themes, such as landscape, portraiture, social issues, and nudes. Prints, paintings, and sculpture are mixed in each section. Jost says that one goal of such grouping is to help art students and others think less specifically of mediums as entirely separate from one another. Another purpose of the exhibit's design is to "create a cultural awareness of that period in Germany's history," says Jost. "For us to say German Expressionism is just about painting or just about art history is really narrow." Many Expressionist artists chose social issues as their subject matter, such as the evils of war and the decay of modern urban life. Käthe Kollwitz dedicated her life to antiwar issues, says Jost. Students researching the post-World War I period can examine a picture like Kollwitz's Death and the Mother, with its dark themes of death and poverty. Those interested in World War II can examine the role art played in German politics. "World War II was a war about art, because visual propaganda and the Nazi government's desire to focus what people saw was incredible," says Wieseman. Indeed, a number of non-art-history courses will use the exhibit to explore their own areas of interest. Leonard Smith, associate professor of history, says he will bring his World War I class to the exhibit to discuss with Jost "how the war was processed culturally and how it has been remembered." Rebecca Leydon, assistant professor of music theory, will bring her 20th-Century Music students to the exhibit to investigate parallels between visual art and music "The Expressionist artists were reinventing the whole color pallet while the contemporary German musician Schoenberg was working on reinventing musical tonality," says Jost. Meanwhile, Heidi Thomann Tewarson, professor of German, plans for the students in her Introduction to German Literature course to give oral presentations on Expressionist pieces in the exhibit later this semester. --Adam Kowit
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