The cats
(Die Katzen)
1920
Medium
woodcut
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Mrs Olive Hirschfeld, 1971
© Gerhard Marcks/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
Gerhard Marcks was one of the first masters at the Bauhaus school in Weimar, Germany, where he was appointed artistic director of the ceramics workshop in 1919. While he was teaching in ceramics, Marcks also made sculptures and prints, including these two woodcuts of predatory cats in urban environments – thinly veiled critiques of political corruption and moral bankruptcy in the Weimar Republic. Marcks left the Bauhaus in 1924 and after holding senior teaching positions in the city of Halle was banned from tertiary education by the National Socialists in 1933. His art was classed as ‘degenerate’ in 1937.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
P57-1971
Departments
International Prints / International Prints and Drawings
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of the Joe White Bequest
Subjects (general)
Animals
Subjects (specific)
black-and-white (colours) domestic cat (species) lines (artistic concept) mouse (animal) steps (stair units)
Movements
Bauhaus