(Old age and youth)

Maria Agnes Elisabeth Voigt

Elisabeth Voigt’s work is firmly rooted in classical Germanic symbology in this depiction of an elderly man, bowed slightly with age, dozing, wearing a sorrowful expression and sitting beneath a decrepit structure, is watched a young child play among wheat stalks. A stony path leads to where the two figures sit; their feet, unshod, touch the earth.

Voigt’s work addressed the hardships and simple joys of daily life, often through a religious lens. Stylistically her work echoes the rich heritage of German woodcut artists ranging from Albrecht Durer to the German Expressionists, during whose time Voigt was a student of both Kathe Kollwitz and Carl Hofer.

This work emblemizes her exploration of the human condition, which, with two World Wars and a Depression, was often at the forefront of Europe’s collective psyche during the first half of Voigt’s lifetime.