Heinrich Zille: A few lines, a few strokes, a little colour at times

The German graphic artist, painter and photographer Heinrich Zille is known for his satirical and humorous portrayal of the Berlin working class. Käthe Kollwitz also appreciated the works of the »Pinselheinrich«, as Zille was often called, and particularly liked those works that did not focus on humorous typifications but on the pure artistic capture of people and situations. The exhibition Heinrich Zille, which opens on 6 November 2021 at the Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Berlin, therefore focuses on the same theme. Until 9 January 2022, around 60 works from a private collection in Berlin will be on display, dealing with topics such as prostitution, alcoholism, unemployment, child poverty and precarious housing conditions. True to the exhibition's motto: »A few lines, a few strokes, a little colour at times«, the show includes early, elaborately reworked prints, coloured etchings, coloured drawings, pencil sketches and an extensive number of heliogravures.

Heinrich Rudolf Zille (1858-1929) was born in Radeburg near Dresden on 10 January 1858 and began an apprenticeship as a lithographer with Fritz Hecht in 1872, followed by training at the Royal Art School in Berlin in 1875, where he studied under Professor Theodor Hosemann and Professor Carl Domschke. Also known by the nicknames »Pinselheinrich«, »Milljöh-Schilderer« and »Vater-Zille« , Zille's satirical and humorous drawings of the Berlin working class make him one of the best-known Berlin artists of the first half of the 20th century and one of the so-called »Berlin originals«.