Cold Steel 1934

Carl Hoeckner made this print, "Cold Steel," using lithography, and it's a powerful piece. Just imagine him working on the stone, scraping and etching to bring these figures to life. What strikes me is the repetition and the stark contrast between the muscular, almost god-like figures in the background and the helmeted soldiers below. It’s like Hoeckner is showing us different layers of war—the idealized, heroic vision versus the grim reality faced by the soldiers. There’s a real sense of unease, a feeling that something is not quite right. The artist seems to question the glorification of war by presenting these figures as a relentless, almost mechanical force. It reminds me of some of Kathe Kollwitz's war prints, that share the same sense of despair and loss. Artists are always in conversation, you know, responding to each other across time and space.