Oorlogsindustrie 1933 - 1935

Curator: Meijer Bleekrode’s ‘Oorlogsindustrie,’ created between 1933 and 1935, offers a chilling commentary. This woodcut print resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: The sheer oppressive weight of the imagery is the first thing that strikes me. Those looming factories, the phalanx of soldiers... it’s suffocating. Curator: Bleekrode's choice of woodcut, a medium associated with graphic directness and stark contrasts, heightens the work's intensity. The bold black and white is key, really forcing us to confront the bleak subject matter. We see a city consumed by industrialization geared towards war. Think about the labor required to make the things depicted, the cost of those processes… Editor: And visually, consider that the industrial and military imagery is literally looming over the man in the foreground with the symbol on his collar. A deliberate power dynamic, amplified by the iconographic potency of the swastika itself. Curator: Precisely! Bleekrode lays bare the means of production, revealing the underbelly of industrial capitalism fueling war. It's an expose of sorts. The cityscape, usually a signifier of progress, becomes a symbol of destruction. I believe this piece acts as more than just an observation, but rather a dire warning of its potential direction. Editor: Agreed. And the simplified, almost cartoonish rendering of the figures serves to dehumanize them. It emphasizes their roles within a larger, destructive system. Like chess pieces moved by a distant, uncaring hand. They become symbols representing ideas larger than themselves, whether complicit or condemned to these roles. The smokestacks even recall the architecture of mass killings of the time...it is incredibly powerful, but also unsettling. Curator: Its enduring impact is its relentless focus on how materials and labor are transformed into instruments of war and death. The tangible nature of this shift in material form leaves a lasting impact and illustrates an unnerving commentary regarding this time period in our past. Editor: Bleekrode’s ‘Oorlogsindustrie’ forces us to confront the symbolic relationship between industry, power, and destruction, a haunting reminder that echoes through history even now.