Seed Corn Must Not be Ground assumes the form of a kylix, an Ancient Greek amphora in the form of drinking vessel. Amphora were often decorated with narrative scenes of everyday life included historic battle scenes. My narrative honors the German artist Kathe Kollwicz (1867-1945) who devoted her career to social commentary particularly the desperate plight of poor women and children due to the devastation of war. An early series of her prints, the The Revolt of the Weavers and then The Peasant Revolt cycle are powerful works that pay homage to the violent struggles of the downtrodden. However, when Kollwicz’s young son was killed in World War I, she was devastated, and her ideology and work shifted as she became an advocate for Pacifism.

Seed Corn Must Not Be Ground is a quote from the German writer Johannes Wolfgang von Goethe and one that Kollwicz embraced for the title of a 1941 lithograph. The quote refers to the utter waste of the multitude of youthful soldiers and starving children who die because of war, never growing into adulthood. In the scene on the kylix, Kollwitz rejects the sickle, the laborers’ primitive weapon of war, as she moves towards the dove and spreads the seeds of peace.